August 13, 2025 • 48 mins
When a headhunter asked Budd Bentley, "How do you feel about chickens and eggs?" in late 2019, it marked the beginning of a transformative journey. After decades in automotive engineering and technology development, Bentley was about to step into the unfamiliar world of poultry technology as President of PMSI (now Prism Controls).
In this revealing conversation with Brandon Mulnix, Bentley shares his unlikely path from solving Rubik's Cubes as a child to leading innovation in agricultural technology. His early career at Prince Corporation taught him a foundational principle: everyone starts on the manufacturing line because "what makes money is when we send product out the door." This grounding in practical operations would shape his leadership philosophy throughout his career.
Bentley's entrepreneurial spirit led him to co-found a mobile app development company in 2005—two years before the iPhone existed—where he learned valuable lessons about innovation timing and market readiness. When he eventually joined the poultry technology sector in January 2020 (just before COVID-19 changed everything), he brought fresh eyes to an established company. "I didn't even know what end of the chicken the egg comes out," he jokes, but he recognized the passionate team's potential for growth through process implementation.
Under Bentley's leadership, Prism Controls grew from 28 to 44 people while developing crucial new technologies like Reach, Eggsite, and Therm. His secret? "Embrace the process, and the process will set you free." By documenting workflows, separating operational activities from innovation, and implementing the Entrepreneurial Operating System framework, the company created a structure that could scale without losing quality or customer focus.
As Bentley prepares for his next challenge as President of Big Dutchman USA, he reflects on what makes the agricultural technology sector special: the directness of farmers as customers. "You don't have to spend mental energy thinking about what they really mean or what they're really thinking, because they just tell you," he explains. This refreshing honesty allows technology providers to focus entirely on problem-solving rather than decoding communications.
Whether you're new to agricultural technology or a seasoned professional, Bentley's journey offers valuable insights into leadership, process development, and industry transition. Listen now to discover how documenting the invisible can transform organizations and set innovation free.
Hosted by Brandon Mulnix - Director of Commercial Accounts - Prism Controls
The Poultry Leadership Podcast is only possible because of its sponsor, Prism Controls
Find out more about them at www.prismcontrols.com
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Brandon Mulnix (00:27):
Welcome to the Poultry Leadership Podcast.
I'm your host, Brandon Mulnix.
On today's episode we get tohear from Budd Bentley, the
president of Prism Controls.
It's not very often that I tryto bring on our guests from
Prism Controls, but Budd's apretty special guy and he's
ready to take on a new big rolewithin a much larger company and
(00:51):
we're going to get into thathere in a few minutes.
But I want to introduce Budd tothe show.
So, Budd, welcome to thepodcast.
Budd Bentley (00:58):
Thank you, Brandon , I appreciate you having me.
I know you've been asking for awhile and I've been holding you
off because, frankly, itterrifies me.
Brandon Mulnix (01:08):
I understand completely.
It's something that I had toget over myself and I remember
you having a conversation wayback when I first started this
thing about somebody elseinviting you on and you kind of
fidgeting away from that.
So I'm glad that you werewilling to jump on the show here
with me.
Now, bud, can you introduceyourself to the audience, tell
(01:28):
them a little bit about who youare, your family kind of?
Where you got started?
Sure, yeah.
Budd Bentley (01:33):
I always like to say or start out with I was a
simple man, born into troubledtimes, but I don't even know why
I say that.
But yeah, so I'm 53 years oldas of last Tuesday.
So kind of an interesting timein my life, getting older and
starting to feel that age is.
(01:54):
Yeah, it's a, like I said, aninteresting time.
My lovely wife Robin and I arecelebrating our 30th wedding
anniversary this November andwe're going to spend some time
together traveling abroad,taking a little vacation before
I make the change over to BigDutchman, which I think you said
(02:17):
we'll talk about a little bitlater.
But I have two lovely daughtersLillian is 25 years old.
Jaylee is 22 years old.
Jaylee just graduated fromNorthern Michigan University as
a nurse and just started herfirst big girl job.
Still lives with us cramps ourno kids style a little bit, but
(02:41):
we'd love to have her around forthe time that she'll be here.
And Lillian, my oldest, justcelebrated her first wedding
anniversary a couple weeks ago,or last week actually, and she
lives in Holland, Michigan.
She's a computer engineer andworks at Gentex and her husband,
mason, is an HR generalist atSherwin-Williams.
(03:03):
So I'm super proud of both ofthem and their accomplishments
and probably the thing I'm mostproud of in my life, I would say
, from a career perspective.
So I was born and raised inHudsonville, michigan, which is
a very small, I would say veryagricultural focused community
(03:24):
between Grand Rapids, Michiganand Holland.
Yeah, my father was a teacher.
My mother didn't work.
I'm the youngest of fivechildren, so I would say my
mother would probably argue thatshe did work, worked a lot, I
guess, to raise us all.
But in, yeah, I mean growing up, I always had a passion for
(03:46):
just nerdy stuff, right, I meanI think I solved my first
Rubik's Cube when I was 10 yearsold and just that sort of thing
just always really got me going, got me thinking, I got my
juices flowing, if you will.
So I went to Hudsonville HighSchool.
(04:07):
I graduated in 1990.
And I didn't really know what Iwanted to do, but I knew I
wanted to do something technical.
A friend of the family actuallymy father was a swim coach and
so a lot of the familiesinvolved with swimming were
friends of ours.
We hosted team parties andthings like that.
(04:29):
But one of those family friendshad gone to what was at the
time General Motors Instituteand he worked for GM.
He was an engineer and he said,hey, bud's kind of a technical
guy, maybe he should think aboutsomething like that.
So I applied to GMI, which isnow Kettering University.
It was the only school Iapplied to.
(04:51):
I didn't really have a plan, Ididn't really have a clue, I'll
be honest.
I didn't really know what I wasdoing or what my options were,
but got accepted into there,started there and yeah, I think
my mind was blown on day one ofmy very first physics class when
they basically coveredeverything I had learned in high
(05:13):
school physics in the firsthalf hour and I was like, oh,
wow, this might be some work.
Graduated with my bachelor's inmechanical engineering and kind
of started on the hunt for myfirst job, started off my career
at a company called PrinceCorporation.
Prince was founded by Ed Princein Holland, Michigan and they
(05:36):
had the.
I guess their claim to fame orwhat caused their success in the
automotive industry was theyinvented the lit vanity visor,
so when you flip down the visorin your car and you open up the
mirror and the light comes on.
That was invented in Holland,michigan, by Ed Prince and
that's what started a company.
(05:57):
By the time I started, princewas, I think, a thousand people,
so fairly big.
By the time it was purchased byJohnson Controls, I think it
was like 3000 people.
So it was a.
It was a very successfulcompany and I think one of the
things that Prince did really,really well was develop their
(06:18):
people and really believe intheir people, and they just did
a fantastic job of developingpeople into leaders and they
really, really cared about meand I'll touch on that a little
bit later when I talk about thelatter years of my career, which
I guess I'm in now.
(06:40):
One of the things that Princedid is everyone started out on
the manufacturing line.
It didn't matter what role youwere hiring in, as whether you
were going to be the CFO or aproject manager or whatever you
were going to be, you startedout working on the assembly line
.
So everyone had a reallywell-grounded view of what makes
money in the company right,what makes money is when we send
(07:02):
product out the door.
In the company, right, whatmakes money is when we send
product out the door.
So there was no ivory tower orcushy day job type of a
mentality.
Everyone knew what the goal wasand I think that was really
super important in my what I'llcall my formative years of my
career.
So I held a lot of differentpositions at Prince, starting
(07:23):
out in engineering, movingthrough finance and
manufacturing and continuousimprovement and quality, and
just a lot of different rolesEventually had the opportunity
to move to Germany.
Prince had operations in Germany.
Actually, at that time Princewas purchased in 1997, 98
(07:46):
timeframe by Johnson Controls,which is obviously a huge
multinational conglomerate typeof a company, but they had a
strong presence in theautomotive industry.
Purchased, prince and I had theopportunity in 1999 to go live
in Germany and work under theJohnson Controls flag in their
headquarters which was justoutside of Cologne, germany.
(08:08):
So lived there for three years.
In fact, my oldest daughter,lillian, was born and was eight
weeks old when we moved toGermany officially.
So that was a great experience.
I look back very fondly on that.
I would absolutely do thatagain.
(08:28):
It's a unique thing to get outof bed and learn every single
day because you don't have achoice, because everything is so
different, and that's a reallyunique experience.
I always liken being an expatto sort of like you're on a
train, your career is a train,right, and you're on the train
and all your colleagues and yourfriends are on the train with
(08:49):
you and you take an expatassignment and you basically get
off the train.
Train keeps going, keeps movingon.
So three years later down theroad when they're trying to
repatriate you, you get back onthe train, sort of further back
than you were before, because Idon't really think companies do
a great job of going hey, we'veinvested a lot of time and a lot
(09:10):
of experience in this person,how are we going to utilize that
?
It's generally an afterthought.
So that was kind of what it wasfor me, and the only really
opportunity they had, or theidea that they had, was they put
me in a leadership developmentprogram which was rotational.
So I started to rotate around adifferent departments within
(09:31):
the organization Like every sixmonths.
It was a very rapid sort of arotation and with that came a
lot of there was a peer groupand we did a lot of leadership
training and different types ofdevelopment activities.
It was a really greatexperience and coming out of
that I landed in a departmentthat was called BBP or Better
(09:55):
Business Practices.
It was basically very focusedon continuous improvement and
that was across the organization, not just from the standpoint
of manufacturing but acrosseverything.
It was a really uniqueexperience and a guy by the name
of Jeff Weiss was the guy wholed it and he was an absolute
genius with numbers and he couldreally look at what was a cost
(10:19):
driver within an organizationand baseline that and compare it
to other parts of theorganization and then dig deep
on okay, well, why is that?
And that was kind of thefoundation of what BBP was.
It sounds like a made upcorporate term, because it was,
but it was very effective.
And then in 2005, I made thevery difficult decision to leave
(10:43):
Johns Controls.
I had an opportunity or I guessI don't say helped to create an
opportunity with two colleaguesof mine, corbin Collet and
Garrett Pohl, and we had theidea that people were going to
use their cell phones for morethan just talking and texting.
So we started a small companycalled Crayon Interface and the
(11:09):
concept behind that name was wewanted our applications to be as
simple to use as a crayon as toa child.
Basically, there's noinstruction manual with a box of
crayons.
You give it to a kid and theyknow exactly what to do with it.
That was kind of what directedour mentality and we started
developing apps for phones.
So if you think about this,this is 2005.
(11:30):
This is two years before theiPhone existed.
The term app didn't even exist.
So I mean we were crazy forthinking we could do it, but we
saw it.
We always joke now when we gettogether around Christmas for
beers and we say you can tellthe pioneers, they're the ones
that have the arrows in theirback, which is a lot what that
(11:53):
felt like when we were trying todevelop our business.
But we did that for five yearsand we had a lot of success.
We had some commercial successwith companies like Ingersoll,
rand and AutoPage we're just acouple of names of companies
that we developed apps for butour model was what we were
trying to achieve was arecurring revenue model based on
a software license, which atthe time, was somewhat novel.
(12:16):
And eventually we got to a point, in sort of the 2009, 2010
timeframe, where we were lookingfor our second round of funding
.
What would have been our secondround of funding was not a
great time to be looking formoney, as everybody who lived
through it can recall.
So we ended up having to breakthe company up into a couple
(12:36):
different pieces and sell it off, so I had to go find a day job
after kind of living my dreamfor five years.
So that was a tough spot.
But, honestly, I had a lot ofrelationships, obviously, at
Johnson Controls.
I went back and I did somecontract engineering work for
them and I hadn't doneengineering work in a really
(12:57):
long time.
That was a challenge, I'm notgonna lie, did that for about a
year and then I landed a job ata company called Primera
Plastics in Zealand and I kindof led their engineering,
quality and project managementdepartments.
Only spent a year there andthen ended up going back to
Johnson Controls and landed inwhat was at the time the Daimler
(13:21):
business unit.
So Mercedes-Benz was thecustomer, what was at the time
the Daimler business unit, soMercedes-Benz was the customer.
And then from there I just sortof developed increasingly more
responsibility within thebusiness unit until ultimately,
around the 2018 timeframe, I waspromoted to the managing
director of all of theinternational businesses.
(13:43):
So all of the customers likeBMW, volkswagen, volvo, daimler
those were all my customers andmy team was responsible for not
just selling but also launchingthe product and putting it at
our various I think we had 20 orso manufacturing plants in
North America to support thatbusiness.
(14:07):
So in 2019, at this time back inthe 2015 timeframe, Johns
Control sort of merged withYunfeng Automotive, which was a
Chinese company, very bigcompany, and it was sort of like
a I don't remember the exactsplit, but 51-49 type of a deal.
And by the time 2018-2019rolled around, the honeymoon was
(14:32):
kind of over with that mergerin terms of really adopting more
of Yanfeng's culture versusJohnson Control's culture and
controls culture, and they hadmade some decisions that they
wanted to really move the focusof the business units to the
other side of the state.
And that was kind of anon-starter for me as born and
(14:52):
raised in West Michigan.
I love it here.
There's a reason people live inWest Michigan, because it's
awesome.
So I had put my name in the hatwith a recruiter and I must have
painted the most ridiculousneedle in a haystack picture for
him in the world.
I met with him summer of 2019and I basically kind of said,
well, I want to.
(15:12):
Technology is my thing.
I really want to be in acompany that's technology.
I really want to get back tothe feel of a family, privately
held company like Prince wasthat cares about people Got to
be in West Michigan.
Obviously I wanted to be asignificant portion of the
leadership team if not lead theteam and be able to contribute
(15:37):
on that level and, if I canutilize my German language and
cultural skills, that would bejust sort of icing on the cake.
So I did not hear from him formonths and I thought, okay, well
, I'll just keep doing what I'mdoing and we'll see.
He called me on the Tuesdaybefore Thanksgiving in 2019.
(15:59):
And he said he literallystarted the conversation by
saying, hey, how do you feelabout chickens and eggs?
Which was an interesting leadin, I guess.
But looking back at it now, itcertainly was appropriate.
So I was taken aback a littlebit and I'm like, well, yeah, I
like chicken, I like eggs, whatdo you got for me?
And he started to explain theposition, which was, of course,
(16:23):
at the time, pmsi and kind ofwhat that looked like.
And they were on a pretty quicktimeframe because Craig England
, who's my predecessor, he wassort of on a ticking clock for
when he needed to be on theother side of the state to
support his family.
So interviews happened veryquickly.
I interviewed with Clovis, Iinterviewed with a handful of
(16:45):
folks in Germany, um,interviewed with Craig and Doug
um, and basically by the secondweek in December, got an offer.
At that same time, to complicatematters, my supervisor, my boss
at Yon Fung, had announced thathe was leaving the Wednesday
(17:07):
before Thanksgiving and I was atleast intended to be, based on
his thoughts, his successor.
So that was another sort offactor in the decision.
But, honestly, I didn't want tomove to the other side of the
state and I was willing to takethe risk to stay here, so I did.
(17:28):
On January 15th, craig, englandwalked out the door at PMSI and
on January 16th of 2020, Iwalked in the door at PMSI, and
on January 16th of 2020, Iwalked in the door at PMSI.
So not a lot of overlap there,which there's some lessons
learned that we can certainlytalk about later.
But yeah, fast forward five anda half years and here I am, in
a brand new industry, in a brandnew world, and it was the best
(17:51):
career decision I ever made.
I love it.
Brandon Mulnix (17:54):
Well, it's interesting because your
timeline and my timeline matchup pretty darn well, because on
November I started theapplication process in October
and by middle of November theybrought me on here at that time
PMSI as well and saying, hey,we're going to give you a chance
as project manager, new to thecompany, new to the industry,
and didn't even know that therewas a leadership transition
(18:17):
ready to happen as well here injust a few months.
But it was interesting becausewe got to kind of start together
.
I always say I have moreseniority than you, but yeah,
three whole months, Three wholemonths.
So, bud, the cat's out of thebag, you're getting ready to
head off to Big Dutchman.
But let's look back at yourlast five years.
I mean there's been quite a bitof change at at PMSI, now Prism
(18:40):
Controls, over that time.
What was one of your biggestaccomplishments in that time?
Budd Bentley (18:46):
Yeah, that's.
That's kind of a tough one, Iguess, to put my finger on,
cause I don't, I don't know, Idon't view it as a me
accomplishment.
I know that probably soundstrite, everybody would say that
but honestly, when I walked inthe door here, I mean this
wasn't a sinking ship right.
Pmsi was a very successfulcompany, a great legacy to
(19:11):
Stephen Herbruck and just agreat solid team.
I guess if I had to say whatwas the greatest accomplishment
that we had over the last fiveyears, it would be just in
putting a little bit of a boxaround what we do.
And I'll say, growing up alittle bit as a company when we
(19:33):
were a 10 person organization,that's a different behavior, a
different mindset than when youget to a 20-person organization,
and now, as a 44-personorganization, there's even more
that's just required to makethat really run well.
And that transition is hard.
(19:54):
A lot of companies, mostcompanies, don't succeed in
making that transition.
Now the fact that we sort ofmade that transition as an
almost 40-year-old company isvery unique.
I would say Most companiesprobably figure that out in the
first two to five years, butthat probably helped us in the
long run.
But I mean just coming in thedoor, I mean, the first thing I
(20:17):
saw was a very passionate andtalented team that came in every
day and worked their asses offto make our customers successful
, because we were, as I alwayslike to say, we were born into
the industry.
Right, I mean, we were born atHerbrooks.
We didn't start as a supplierto the industry.
Right, I mean, we were born atHerbrooks, we didn't start as a
supplier to the industry.
We were on the farm solvingreal world farm problems every
(20:41):
day, and that's what made ussuccessful.
But when you have the marketshare that we have and the
industry relies on you to thatlevel, you can't sustain that
unless you put a little bit of abox around it.
And when I say put a little bitof a box around it, I really
mean process, and I think we'regoing to talk a little bit about
(21:02):
that and probably in moredetail but just making it so
that when you come in every day,you know what your day is going
to look like and you know howyou're going to solve things and
you know what the team aroundyou, what your internal
customers and what your internalsuppliers are going to do,
(21:23):
because it's defined.
Somebody wrote it down right.
I mean, in the first 40 yearsof this company, nobody ever
wrote it down.
Everybody knew what to do.
But when every day comes at youlike it's a surprise, it's hard
to scale that and it's hard tocontinuously improve that, it's
hard to train that.
(21:44):
So that's, I would say, in thelast five years.
I mean, when I started, when Iwalked in the door, pmsi was 28
people and now it's 44 people,five years later.
And a lot of people might say,well, why, what caused that?
And a lot's going on, obviouslyfrom a macro perspective in the
industry, but a lot of it wasjust based on a need we couldn't
(22:08):
sustain what we were doing withthe resources we had and sort
of the methodology that we had,and so we changed a lot of the
methodology that we had and sowe changed a lot of it.
It was painful, but I think,looking back, I think pretty
much maybe not everybody, butmost people would say, yeah, we
(22:28):
went in the right direction andwe're heading in the right
direction.
Brandon Mulnix (22:30):
Yeah, I remember that time that was coming in
from outside and basically myjob at that point with Doug
Powell was hey, we got to put aprocess together.
You're the first projectmanager.
I stepped in for someone whowas in that role at the
beginning and was like, hey,this is too much.
And so I jumped in and had tostart drawing the line from
(22:54):
start to finish and realizingthat, as you mentioned, surprise
, our customers knew it wascoming.
Well, how did we know that theproject was coming?
How did we start to fill thatinformation out?
And just gathering that all theway through, that was fun
because I think I had it aboutdrafted and done on your first
day and it was nice to be ableto hand off this project of
(23:14):
here's kind of the flow.
So that way you at least youknow could say oh okay, we got.
You know this helps, helpstrain, you know, and we're still
using it today, which is thefun part.
So, when it comes to process,I've gotten to witness your
passion, your, your focus aroundprocess.
Why is that passion and why isit so important to you?
Budd Bentley (23:37):
Yeah, great question.
I was walking with my wifehaving this conversation this
morning and we were actuallytalking about we play trivia
with our friends on Wednesdaynight and we're just we're
walking as we do in the morningand I said to her hey, I really
want to propose to the triviateam that we, you know, take a
(23:59):
little bit of a differentapproach, you know, in how we
collaborate.
And she laughed out loud andshe said to me you just really
can't help it, can you?
You just have to think aboutthings from the perspective of
you know, how do we, how do wedefine it and and, uh, improve
it.
And I was like, yeah, I, Iguess, I guess, start to finish.
(24:20):
That's how my brain works.
Uh, from the time I wake up inthe morning to the time I go to
bed.
I very much believe in embracethe process, and the process
will set you free.
I don't think we well, I, I forsure didn't define the process
that we use here.
We simply documented it.
Right, like I said, everybodyknows what they do.
(24:42):
But unless you write it down,how do you share it, how do you
point out where there might bean inefficiency and change it?
And so my passion really comesfrom.
When you get a cross-functionalteam in a room and talk about
how you interact and where theexchanges happen and where there
(25:04):
might be inefficiencies, that'sgold.
And most people don'tnecessarily mind that gold
because just don't see it fromthat perspective.
They see what they do and theymaybe see a little bit of the
fringe of where the exchangeshappen between the groups.
They see a little bit of that,but they don't see the whole
(25:27):
thing.
And I just always want to seethe whole thing and I think
that's what drives me.
I want to see that wholepicture and then I want to share
it.
And once you show that to people, it's powerful because then the
working level team that'sactually doing it you can
actually make their lives better.
When you show them the wholepicture and they can see the
(25:49):
interaction, they not onlyunderstand how their lives can
be better, but they understandhow they can make the people
downstream from them make theirlives better.
And it's just.
I think it's really powerful tolook at things that way and and
yeah, it's uh, there's not alot of magic to it, because you
get the right people in the roomthat do the work and you just
(26:10):
write down what they say, andand then you, you know, you turn
it into something that that'seasy for everybody to read and
see, something visual, and andyou go from there.
So, yeah, I, I, I very muchlove sitting down and really
getting to know how things workAlways have.
Brandon Mulnix (26:29):
It's always interesting being on the other
side of it when you'rechallenged with either a new
product or new, new piece ofthings, where you'd be like it
doesn't follow the process andyou'd be across the room from me
and going, no, it's going tofollow the process and, sure
enough, after enough thinking,slowing down and realizing, yeah
(26:50):
, it does meet the process.
You have quoting, you haveproduction and design, and then
you have getting it out in thefield.
You keep it simple and it isinteresting because that is a
challenge with a lot of newproducts and a lot of new things
is, hey, this is a unicorn andit's off over here, and how do
we make it part of our everydayprocess?
So over the last five years,there's been a lot of new
(27:14):
technology that we've developedas a company and we've been part
of.
When it comes to new technology, when it comes to new products,
how is that influential to yourhelping us as a company, grow
over the last five years?
Budd Bentley (27:28):
Yeah, so PMSI or Prism Controls has always been,
I mean, really two things right.
We are a technology company,right, and technology companies
have to develop new technologiesor someone else will.
Combined with that, though,we're a service company, right.
(27:48):
I mean, we serve the industry.
We served essentially as the ITteam or the technology team for
Herbruck's, and we expandedthat to the entire layer
industry really in our countryand even abroad in a lot of
cases.
So combining those two thingstechnology and service is hard
(28:11):
to do.
I mean, if you think about whatdo most companies do with their
IT team, they stash it underfinance or under human resources
because nobody knows what to dowith it.
And we're basically that We'vebuilt a company.
Being that, and not just fromthe standpoint of IT, is just a
(28:33):
lot of service, but developingthe technologies that we then
service.
So it's a really unique model,and I think when I walked in the
door here I was a littlesurprised at just how little
time we had for the new productdevelopment side, because we
(28:54):
were so engrossed in the service, which obviously our customers
appreciate us servicing them tothat level.
But at the end of the day,there's also an expectation of
what's the new thing?
What's next?
What will make my farm moreefficient in the future?
Not just what did know, whatdid you do you know last year.
(29:17):
So part of part of what we didis is really make a conscious
effort to separate what I nowcall sort of the operational
side of the business rightServicing customers, building
panels, serving our currentproduct line, our current
(29:37):
solutions, and then the newproduct development part of it.
So we really had to make aneffort to separate those two out
, because they were so blendedtogether that obviously
servicing customers is alwaysgoing to come first.
If you're focused on doing thatand your bandwidth is so
limited for developing newproducts, you can't put things
(30:00):
on a timeline, you can't putthings on a cadence, you can't
deliver anything.
So the importance of putting alittle bit of a process around
that as well and really sort ofcarving out the resources was
kind of job one.
And then that's when youstarted to see things like Reach
as a mobile app and you startedto see things like Eggsite and
(30:21):
you started to see things likeTherm sort of come out of just
spending more resources, moretime, more energy on developing
those things.
I mean the problem statementswere pretty clear, right.
Everybody was frustrated withegg count accuracy.
The risk of fire is high andjeopardizes the business, so the
(30:42):
problem space was super clear,but you're never going to put
anything out there if you don'tspend the time and energy and
resources on it.
So we did that and we'restarting to see the fruits of
that labor in those new products, and we've got some even more
exciting things coming, as youof course know, and I know that
that's what Eric's passion is aswell.
(31:04):
Obviously that's where he comesfrom and I know that that will
continue.
So I'm very, very excited aboutwhat we have coming down the
road, and more so even than thespecific solutions, but the
things we put in place to makesure we can sustain that, the
resources we have, the processeswe have and the vision that we
(31:26):
have for what that future lookslike in terms of technology is
super exciting to a nerd like me.
Brandon Mulnix (31:34):
You are a nerd, for sure.
You can quote any type of movie.
It's one of those fun thingsabout you.
So, over the past five years,what is something that you have
overcome or a struggle thatyou've really had to get over
the top of?
Budd Bentley (31:52):
You want the whole list or just the top 10?
Oh man, I don't know.
That's the easy answer,Probably one that anyone would
say was you know, starting abrand new career, basically a
new job in a new industry with anew team.
You know, days before COVIDhappened was certainly presented
(32:15):
its challenges, but I don'teven think about that in terms
of being at the top because, Idon't know, it almost gave me
sort of a I don't know if excuseis the right word, but being
the new guy and having all theinteractions limited, and it
almost gave me sort of a softstart versus being slammed into
(32:38):
it, Right.
So I, I don't know, I almostview that a little bit as a
blessing and a curse.
I would honestly say justacceptance from the team was,
was huge for me.
I mean, if you think about the,the challenges that the company
and the team was going throughat that me, I mean if you think
about the challenges that thecompany, the team, was going
through at that time.
I mean Doug had led for so longand Steven for so long before
(33:01):
him and those two did an amazingjob with just so in tuned with
our customers.
I mean, essentially, we're ourcustomers, right, I mean
literally born into the industry.
And then Craig, obviously, withhis vast experience and coming
in and, by the way, I have togive Craig the credit for even
(33:21):
starting project the concept ofbringing project managers aboard
at PMSI.
Well, that was not my idea.
That was Craig and that was, inmy mind, one of the most key
developments in again maturingus as an organization.
So following that was hard.
Especially new guy don't evenknow what end of the chicken,
(33:43):
the egg, comes out, essentiallycoming into a brand new industry
.
So no street cred whatsoeverthrown into the mix.
And I think starting to gainthe team's trust in becoming a
credible leader was the biggestchallenge that I had to overcome
.
And I'd love to tell you that Ihave a secret recipe for that
(34:05):
and I know exactly whatcontributed to that and how that
happened, but I have no idea.
But I'm thankful that it did.
Brandon Mulnix (34:13):
Well, you overcame.
I mean, you're leaving quite anincredible legacy here, with
the processes in place, amanagement system that has set
us up to lead the company asleaders, leadership, development
, expansion.
There's a lot of things thatyou're a little humble to not
(34:35):
say, but there's so many thingsthat you've been able to help
lead us through Avian influenzafrom a manufacturing side, covid
.
These are all things thatpeople take for granted because
it was a blip in their radar.
But this was at the start ofyour career in this industry.
So I get the idea, cause I also, as the same time, came in new,
new career, new job, neweverything, new industry and and
(34:58):
if it wasn't for this greatindustry, great people it
probably would have been a muchmore difficult.
So a lot, a lot of hats off topeople that have reached out to
you over the years, too, to helpguide you and coach you from
the industry as well.
So, all right, what's next forBudd Bentley?
Budd Bentley (35:15):
Yeah, so obviously very public information already
that I'm making the transition,the jump over to Big Dutchman,
succeeding Clovis as he retiresand, of course, eric Hansen is
taking over here at Prism.
You mentioned the leadershipframework or the business
operating framework, eos, and Idon't know that there's a lot of
(35:39):
people that know that weutilize it, but I know some
others in the industry utilizethat framework as well and I
always liked it right Because,again, process guy, it's a
process and it's dead simple.
Liked it right Because, again,process guy, it's a process and
it's dead simple.
Now, transitioning into bigDutchman, the value of it is
immeasurable as we hand thingsoff, because I'm not handing off
(36:02):
something that's in my headwhich is super hard to do.
Nobody wants to get in thereanyway, trust me.
But I'm handing off a plan thatwe have developed as a
leadership team and as the wholeteam because of that framework
and to be able to contrast thatwith going into Big Dutchman,
where that framework doesn'texist, it's just a lot harder.
(36:24):
Now, mind you, big Dutchman isalso 10X the size and scale and
scope, so there's a lot involvedin that as well.
But I think that the handoff toEric is way easier than I ever
imagined it would be because ofthat framework being in place.
But yeah, so stepping in thedoor at Big Dutchman, honestly
(36:46):
I've been saying that and thisweek's been a daunting week, but
I've been saying that I getmore and more excited about it
every day, and that excitementprobably stems from the fact
that I kind of see the samething that I saw when I walked
in the door here at Prism.
Controls is a super passionate,intelligent team that works
(37:08):
their asses off every day tomake our customers successful,
and just the challenges of nothaving that process in place.
Now there are more processes atBig Dutchman than there were
here, quite honestly, becausethe scale of the company just
sort of dictates that.
But there's so much that's notyet defined, so there's a lot of
(37:30):
low hanging fruit.
That again, I just think when Ilook at the team.
We can make people's livesbetter just by kind of writing
it down and wrapping our mindsaround it, and so I get super
excited when I think about doingthat, and at the same time it's
pretty daunting, right?
I mean, Clovis is a hard act tofollow.
(37:52):
He has built an amazing team,he has tremendous respect within
the industry, been aroundforever, and that's a tough act
to follow.
So I feel like I'm kind ofthrown in that same boat again.
At least now I have a littlebit of street cred within the
industry.
But there's a lot to learn.
It's daunting, for sure, butI'm excited about the challenge.
Brandon Mulnix (38:16):
Well, they have a great team.
They're growing.
If you bring even 1% of thechanges that you brought here at
a scale of that company, it'sgoing to make some huge
improvements and the EOS systemhas from being on the leadership
team.
I love structure in that way tohave a meeting that I know I'm
(38:37):
going to go into and I know thatit's going to follow an agenda
and we're not just going to betalking about just anything,
because what a waste of time.
I've been in those meetingsthroughout my career in
different places.
Where you go in the meetingthere's no agenda, there's
nothing, and you're justabsolutely like what did we
accomplish here?
No one leaves the room with ato-do list.
(38:58):
Everybody is like yeah, yeah,this is what we talked about.
And they leave the room andthey don't even know what they
agreed and the power of thatthrough developing it here at
this scale and being able totake that same philosophy.
That applies to a farm, becauseI've talked with a number of
(39:18):
farmers that implement that EOSsystem and how they have the
L10s and then they have it downto the different departments and
divisions and how that justaligns the company.
You know the simple things ofvalues.
So we're all saying the samething.
You know we come to work everyday and we know these are the
core values.
(39:38):
And then measuring people bythose core values is so huge and
I love our core values.
You know we always give Dougthe credit for Shiva getter, you
know, and and people like whatthe heck is that?
But we know here what it meanswhen you're walking through a
room and you see a piece oftrash on the floor and you pick
it up and you put it awaybecause you give a shit about
(39:59):
this industry and about thecompany and it matters.
That's the people that I wantto work with, that's the people
that we've hired, and andthere's people that you know,
probably over the time, don'tfeel they live up to the values
and they go away from thecompany.
And so those key factors thatEOS has kind of helped us mature
(40:20):
in, you didn't have experiencein it, I didn't have experience
in it, our team didn't.
I think we went from like eight,nine people in a meeting down
to four, which was huge, justbecause it was able to really
focus on what the company neededto do, because there's so many
distractions and you're going tohave even way more distractions
over there than you had here,but let somebody else do that
(40:49):
task so you can focus onsomething bigger, you know, such
as maybe, taking out the trash.
You know doing the simplethings, because no job has been
above you at all, like you'renot above any job.
You literally will do anything.
Do the dishes, you know, takecare of the, take care of the
trash.
Like I said, you've been out onthe shop floor, you've been in
farms, I mean.
(41:10):
So that's one of the thingsthat's nice that you get to
continue to take up, but you'vegot that many more people to do
some of those things that youneed to focus on the big stuff,
which is what you're really,really good at.
So, as we get ready to wrap uphere, bud, you came into the
industry you were new.
You're fresh and new in theindustry.
You're getting ready to go intothe next level of the industry.
(41:30):
What advice do you have forsomebody that's just getting
started in this industry?
Budd Bentley (41:36):
Oh, I don't know that I'm great at giving advice.
I'm maybe great at just talking.
So I'll just talk and we'll seewhether that turns into
anything useful.
I always like to say and Idon't say it because I think it
has any benefit other than Ireally think it's true, farmers
(41:58):
are the best customers theyreally are.
I mean coming from theautomotive industry where
everything is so I'll use theword adversarial.
I'll use the word adversarialnot just the supplier-customer
(42:22):
relationship, but even withinthe different OEMs.
They all have their own sort ofculture and there's just such a
different feel when you walkinto a farm and you're sitting
across the table from someone oryou're out in the barn talking
about real problems.
It's just so refreshing not tohave to spend mental energy
thinking about gosh, what dothey really mean?
(42:43):
Or what are they reallythinking, because they just tell
you Whether it's good or bad.
It's all great, because nothaving to spend mental energy on
that means you can actuallyspend mental energy on solving a
problem or making somethingbetter, making people's lives
better.
I think that maybe the advicethere is just be present in
(43:06):
those moments when you'retalking not just to your
customers but to anybody in theindustry or on the farm, because
you're hearing the real thing.
You don't have to think aboutwhat does it mean or what are
they trying to communicate,because generally, I think
they're just communicating it.
So don't miss it.
(43:28):
Listen to it and then act on itright.
Farmers are based on action.
Farmers are the originalinnovators, so we got to do
things and being able to focusyour mental energy on okay, I
heard what they said.
Let's go solve it.
It's unique.
(43:48):
I will say it's unique in thisindustry.
So pay attention to thosethings and then get out there
and do something.
Maybe that's my advice.
Brandon Mulnix (43:57):
No, that's great advice.
That's great advice because,living that out over the last
five years as myself, it's true,I mean we talk about how great
our customers are, but the factthat they're all out there to
feed the world Very simple, verysimple product it's an egg
Chicken does most of the work.
(44:18):
The farmer manages to make surethe chicken is doing that work
and giving them the bestenvironments and all that.
But it's interesting because,again, when you're talking with
them, they're not worried aboutthe farm down the street,
they're worried about the bird,they're worried about their
people.
They're worried about the samethings that we talk about here,
(44:40):
as the important pieces is howdo we help the farmers feed the
world?
It's not about us, it's aboutthem feeding the world and it's
ultimately about the chickenfeeding the world.
And how can we have more ofthose chickens feeding the world
?
Because that's what makes theworld a better place the food,
the nutrition.
And when you were talking aboutautomotive, I'm thinking well,
how did you change the worldwith the vanity mirror and the
(45:02):
car?
I'm sure there's some women outthere that would really
appreciate that, where, yeah,that vanity mirror has saved
them with a lot of things.
But in the case of the industrythat we're in, the industry
that you're going to continue in, and a new role with a great
company that we get to continueto interact with.
We're excited because here isour leader that's helped us grow
(45:26):
, go up to the next level andthen pull a lot of ideas and
pull a lot of the things thatwe've been working really hard
on into that next level for uswhere we can continue to grow.
It's one thing to have thefarmers as our market here in
the US, but there's peopleoutside the US that really want
what we have to offer and yetover the years it's hard to
(45:51):
start that business down thatroad.
But to have the experience ofbig Dutchman who does it every
day, it's really nice to havethat.
And so for you to be able tosay, hey, I know a company that
does that, hey, I know a companythat does that, and how can we
better serve the industry andhelp us scale up in that way?
So but I want to thank you forbeing a guest on the podcast.
(46:11):
It really means a lot.
I had to get you in before youget too busy over in Holland and
I don't get a chance to see youmuch.
We've had a great five years.
It's been fun.
Budd Bentley (46:21):
I've enjoyed it as well, Brandon, and you're too
late.
I'm already very busy.
Brandon Mulnix (46:26):
Well, as I mean, I have to say you know, you've
been more than a boss.
You've been a friend, acolleague.
We've grown together, we'vefought the fight together and
it's been just absolute pleasurelooking forward to next
chapters, to see you besuccessful, see how we continue
to grow as well.
And so, listeners, it's notevery day that we get a leader
that's in transition on the show.
(46:48):
It's always the scary timeWe've learned, because now the
transition's not one day fromthe 15th to the 16th.
It's been over a period ofmonths.
It's been a plan that's beencoming for over a year and then
that's helped the transition allthe way down through the
company.
So nobody's surprised onOctober 1st when we have
(47:09):
officially a new president here.
But he's been doing the workfor the last six months and
everybody's just kind of flowing.
So thank you, listeners.
I don't have to really shareanything much about Prism
Controls, because this wholeepisode is about Prism Controls.
But again, this episodewouldn't be possible without
Prism Controls and the fact thatthey believe in bringing you
(47:30):
the industry knowledge that ismore than just about technology,
but about leadership, aboutsome of the things that we've
been learning and sharing it.
Knowledge is not about keepingit for yourself.
Knowledge is about sharing itwith the industry, so thank you,
prism Controls, for doing that.
Please like share?
Share this podcast with others.
It's how it grows, continues tofind more people, new people in
(47:53):
the industry that are learning,so I couldn't do it without you
listeners.
So listeners, have a great day.
Welcome to the Poultry Leadership Podcast.
I'm your host, Brandon Mulnix.
On today's episode we get tohear from Budd Bentley, the
president of Prism Controls.
It's not very often that I tryto bring on our guests from
Prism Controls, but Budd's apretty special guy and he's
ready to take on a new big rolewithin a much larger company and
(00:51):
we're going to get into thathere in a few minutes.
But I want to introduce Budd tothe show.
So, Budd, welcome to thepodcast.
Budd Bentley (00:58):
Thank you, Brandon , I appreciate you having me.
I know you've been asking for awhile and I've been holding you
off because, frankly, itterrifies me.
Brandon Mulnix (01:08):
I understand completely.
It's something that I had toget over myself and I remember
you having a conversation wayback when I first started this
thing about somebody elseinviting you on and you kind of
fidgeting away from that.
So I'm glad that you werewilling to jump on the show here
with me.
Now, bud, can you introduceyourself to the audience, tell
(01:28):
them a little bit about who youare, your family kind of?
Where you got started?
Sure, yeah.
Budd Bentley (01:33):
I always like to say or start out with I was a
simple man, born into troubledtimes, but I don't even know why
I say that.
But yeah, so I'm 53 years oldas of last Tuesday.
So kind of an interesting timein my life, getting older and
starting to feel that age is.
(01:54):
Yeah, it's a, like I said, aninteresting time.
My lovely wife Robin and I arecelebrating our 30th wedding
anniversary this November andwe're going to spend some time
together traveling abroad,taking a little vacation before
I make the change over to BigDutchman, which I think you said
(02:17):
we'll talk about a little bitlater.
But I have two lovely daughtersLillian is 25 years old.
Jaylee is 22 years old.
Jaylee just graduated fromNorthern Michigan University as
a nurse and just started herfirst big girl job.
Still lives with us cramps ourno kids style a little bit, but
(02:41):
we'd love to have her around forthe time that she'll be here.
And Lillian, my oldest, justcelebrated her first wedding
anniversary a couple weeks ago,or last week actually, and she
lives in Holland, Michigan.
She's a computer engineer andworks at Gentex and her husband,
mason, is an HR generalist atSherwin-Williams.
(03:03):
So I'm super proud of both ofthem and their accomplishments
and probably the thing I'm mostproud of in my life, I would say
, from a career perspective.
So I was born and raised inHudsonville, michigan, which is
a very small, I would say veryagricultural focused community
(03:24):
between Grand Rapids, Michiganand Holland.
Yeah, my father was a teacher.
My mother didn't work.
I'm the youngest of fivechildren, so I would say my
mother would probably argue thatshe did work, worked a lot, I
guess, to raise us all.
But in, yeah, I mean growing up, I always had a passion for
(03:46):
just nerdy stuff, right, I meanI think I solved my first
Rubik's Cube when I was 10 yearsold and just that sort of thing
just always really got me going, got me thinking, I got my
juices flowing, if you will.
So I went to Hudsonville HighSchool.
(04:07):
I graduated in 1990.
And I didn't really know what Iwanted to do, but I knew I
wanted to do something technical.
A friend of the family actuallymy father was a swim coach and
so a lot of the familiesinvolved with swimming were
friends of ours.
We hosted team parties andthings like that.
(04:29):
But one of those family friendshad gone to what was at the
time General Motors Instituteand he worked for GM.
He was an engineer and he said,hey, bud's kind of a technical
guy, maybe he should think aboutsomething like that.
So I applied to GMI, which isnow Kettering University.
It was the only school Iapplied to.
(04:51):
I didn't really have a plan, Ididn't really have a clue, I'll
be honest.
I didn't really know what I wasdoing or what my options were,
but got accepted into there,started there and yeah, I think
my mind was blown on day one ofmy very first physics class when
they basically coveredeverything I had learned in high
(05:13):
school physics in the firsthalf hour and I was like, oh,
wow, this might be some work.
Graduated with my bachelor's inmechanical engineering and kind
of started on the hunt for myfirst job, started off my career
at a company called PrinceCorporation.
Prince was founded by Ed Princein Holland, Michigan and they
(05:36):
had the.
I guess their claim to fame orwhat caused their success in the
automotive industry was theyinvented the lit vanity visor,
so when you flip down the visorin your car and you open up the
mirror and the light comes on.
That was invented in Holland,michigan, by Ed Prince and
that's what started a company.
(05:57):
By the time I started, princewas, I think, a thousand people,
so fairly big.
By the time it was purchased byJohnson Controls, I think it
was like 3000 people.
So it was a.
It was a very successfulcompany and I think one of the
things that Prince did really,really well was develop their
(06:18):
people and really believe intheir people, and they just did
a fantastic job of developingpeople into leaders and they
really, really cared about meand I'll touch on that a little
bit later when I talk about thelatter years of my career, which
I guess I'm in now.
(06:40):
One of the things that Princedid is everyone started out on
the manufacturing line.
It didn't matter what role youwere hiring in, as whether you
were going to be the CFO or aproject manager or whatever you
were going to be, you startedout working on the assembly line
.
So everyone had a reallywell-grounded view of what makes
money in the company right,what makes money is when we send
(07:02):
product out the door.
In the company, right, whatmakes money is when we send
product out the door.
So there was no ivory tower orcushy day job type of a
mentality.
Everyone knew what the goal wasand I think that was really
super important in my what I'llcall my formative years of my
career.
So I held a lot of differentpositions at Prince, starting
(07:23):
out in engineering, movingthrough finance and
manufacturing and continuousimprovement and quality, and
just a lot of different rolesEventually had the opportunity
to move to Germany.
Prince had operations in Germany.
Actually, at that time Princewas purchased in 1997, 98
(07:46):
timeframe by Johnson Controls,which is obviously a huge
multinational conglomerate typeof a company, but they had a
strong presence in theautomotive industry.
Purchased, prince and I had theopportunity in 1999 to go live
in Germany and work under theJohnson Controls flag in their
headquarters which was justoutside of Cologne, germany.
(08:08):
So lived there for three years.
In fact, my oldest daughter,lillian, was born and was eight
weeks old when we moved toGermany officially.
So that was a great experience.
I look back very fondly on that.
I would absolutely do thatagain.
(08:28):
It's a unique thing to get outof bed and learn every single
day because you don't have achoice, because everything is so
different, and that's a reallyunique experience.
I always liken being an expatto sort of like you're on a
train, your career is a train,right, and you're on the train
and all your colleagues and yourfriends are on the train with
(08:49):
you and you take an expatassignment and you basically get
off the train.
Train keeps going, keeps movingon.
So three years later down theroad when they're trying to
repatriate you, you get back onthe train, sort of further back
than you were before, because Idon't really think companies do
a great job of going hey, we'veinvested a lot of time and a lot
(09:10):
of experience in this person,how are we going to utilize that
?
It's generally an afterthought.
So that was kind of what it wasfor me, and the only really
opportunity they had, or theidea that they had, was they put
me in a leadership developmentprogram which was rotational.
So I started to rotate around adifferent departments within
(09:31):
the organization Like every sixmonths.
It was a very rapid sort of arotation and with that came a
lot of there was a peer groupand we did a lot of leadership
training and different types ofdevelopment activities.
It was a really greatexperience and coming out of
that I landed in a departmentthat was called BBP or Better
(09:55):
Business Practices.
It was basically very focusedon continuous improvement and
that was across the organization, not just from the standpoint
of manufacturing but acrosseverything.
It was a really uniqueexperience and a guy by the name
of Jeff Weiss was the guy wholed it and he was an absolute
genius with numbers and he couldreally look at what was a cost
(10:19):
driver within an organizationand baseline that and compare it
to other parts of theorganization and then dig deep
on okay, well, why is that?
And that was kind of thefoundation of what BBP was.
It sounds like a made upcorporate term, because it was,
but it was very effective.
And then in 2005, I made thevery difficult decision to leave
(10:43):
Johns Controls.
I had an opportunity or I guessI don't say helped to create an
opportunity with two colleaguesof mine, corbin Collet and
Garrett Pohl, and we had theidea that people were going to
use their cell phones for morethan just talking and texting.
So we started a small companycalled Crayon Interface and the
(11:09):
concept behind that name was wewanted our applications to be as
simple to use as a crayon as toa child.
Basically, there's noinstruction manual with a box of
crayons.
You give it to a kid and theyknow exactly what to do with it.
That was kind of what directedour mentality and we started
developing apps for phones.
So if you think about this,this is 2005.
(11:30):
This is two years before theiPhone existed.
The term app didn't even exist.
So I mean we were crazy forthinking we could do it, but we
saw it.
We always joke now when we gettogether around Christmas for
beers and we say you can tellthe pioneers, they're the ones
that have the arrows in theirback, which is a lot what that
(11:53):
felt like when we were trying todevelop our business.
But we did that for five yearsand we had a lot of success.
We had some commercial successwith companies like Ingersoll,
rand and AutoPage we're just acouple of names of companies
that we developed apps for butour model was what we were
trying to achieve was arecurring revenue model based on
a software license, which atthe time, was somewhat novel.
(12:16):
And eventually we got to a point, in sort of the 2009, 2010
timeframe, where we were lookingfor our second round of funding
.
What would have been our secondround of funding was not a
great time to be looking formoney, as everybody who lived
through it can recall.
So we ended up having to breakthe company up into a couple
(12:36):
different pieces and sell it off, so I had to go find a day job
after kind of living my dreamfor five years.
So that was a tough spot.
But, honestly, I had a lot ofrelationships, obviously, at
Johnson Controls.
I went back and I did somecontract engineering work for
them and I hadn't doneengineering work in a really
(12:57):
long time.
That was a challenge, I'm notgonna lie, did that for about a
year and then I landed a job ata company called Primera
Plastics in Zealand and I kindof led their engineering,
quality and project managementdepartments.
Only spent a year there andthen ended up going back to
Johnson Controls and landed inwhat was at the time the Daimler
(13:21):
business unit.
So Mercedes-Benz was thecustomer, what was at the time
the Daimler business unit, soMercedes-Benz was the customer.
And then from there I just sortof developed increasingly more
responsibility within thebusiness unit until ultimately,
around the 2018 timeframe, I waspromoted to the managing
director of all of theinternational businesses.
(13:43):
So all of the customers likeBMW, volkswagen, volvo, daimler
those were all my customers andmy team was responsible for not
just selling but also launchingthe product and putting it at
our various I think we had 20 orso manufacturing plants in
North America to support thatbusiness.
(14:07):
So in 2019, at this time back inthe 2015 timeframe, Johns
Control sort of merged withYunfeng Automotive, which was a
Chinese company, very bigcompany, and it was sort of like
a I don't remember the exactsplit, but 51-49 type of a deal.
And by the time 2018-2019rolled around, the honeymoon was
(14:32):
kind of over with that mergerin terms of really adopting more
of Yanfeng's culture versusJohnson Control's culture and
controls culture, and they hadmade some decisions that they
wanted to really move the focusof the business units to the
other side of the state.
And that was kind of anon-starter for me as born and
(14:52):
raised in West Michigan.
I love it here.
There's a reason people live inWest Michigan, because it's
awesome.
So I had put my name in the hatwith a recruiter and I must have
painted the most ridiculousneedle in a haystack picture for
him in the world.
I met with him summer of 2019and I basically kind of said,
well, I want to.
(15:12):
Technology is my thing.
I really want to be in acompany that's technology.
I really want to get back tothe feel of a family, privately
held company like Prince wasthat cares about people Got to
be in West Michigan.
Obviously I wanted to be asignificant portion of the
leadership team if not lead theteam and be able to contribute
(15:37):
on that level and, if I canutilize my German language and
cultural skills, that would bejust sort of icing on the cake.
So I did not hear from him formonths and I thought, okay, well
, I'll just keep doing what I'mdoing and we'll see.
He called me on the Tuesdaybefore Thanksgiving in 2019.
(15:59):
And he said he literallystarted the conversation by
saying, hey, how do you feelabout chickens and eggs?
Which was an interesting leadin, I guess.
But looking back at it now, itcertainly was appropriate.
So I was taken aback a littlebit and I'm like, well, yeah, I
like chicken, I like eggs, whatdo you got for me?
And he started to explain theposition, which was, of course,
(16:23):
at the time, pmsi and kind ofwhat that looked like.
And they were on a pretty quicktimeframe because Craig England
, who's my predecessor, he wassort of on a ticking clock for
when he needed to be on theother side of the state to
support his family.
So interviews happened veryquickly.
I interviewed with Clovis, Iinterviewed with a handful of
(16:45):
folks in Germany, um,interviewed with Craig and Doug
um, and basically by the secondweek in December, got an offer.
At that same time, to complicatematters, my supervisor, my boss
at Yon Fung, had announced thathe was leaving the Wednesday
(17:07):
before Thanksgiving and I was atleast intended to be, based on
his thoughts, his successor.
So that was another sort offactor in the decision.
But, honestly, I didn't want tomove to the other side of the
state and I was willing to takethe risk to stay here, so I did.
(17:28):
On January 15th, craig, englandwalked out the door at PMSI and
on January 16th of 2020, Iwalked in the door at PMSI, and
on January 16th of 2020, Iwalked in the door at PMSI.
So not a lot of overlap there,which there's some lessons
learned that we can certainlytalk about later.
But yeah, fast forward five anda half years and here I am, in
a brand new industry, in a brandnew world, and it was the best
(17:51):
career decision I ever made.
I love it.
Brandon Mulnix (17:54):
Well, it's interesting because your
timeline and my timeline matchup pretty darn well, because on
November I started theapplication process in October
and by middle of November theybrought me on here at that time
PMSI as well and saying, hey,we're going to give you a chance
as project manager, new to thecompany, new to the industry,
and didn't even know that therewas a leadership transition
(18:17):
ready to happen as well here injust a few months.
But it was interesting becausewe got to kind of start together
.
I always say I have moreseniority than you, but yeah,
three whole months, Three wholemonths.
So, bud, the cat's out of thebag, you're getting ready to
head off to Big Dutchman.
But let's look back at yourlast five years.
I mean there's been quite a bitof change at at PMSI, now Prism
(18:40):
Controls, over that time.
What was one of your biggestaccomplishments in that time?
Budd Bentley (18:46):
Yeah, that's.
That's kind of a tough one, Iguess, to put my finger on,
cause I don't, I don't know, Idon't view it as a me
accomplishment.
I know that probably soundstrite, everybody would say that
but honestly, when I walked inthe door here, I mean this
wasn't a sinking ship right.
Pmsi was a very successfulcompany, a great legacy to
(19:11):
Stephen Herbruck and just agreat solid team.
I guess if I had to say whatwas the greatest accomplishment
that we had over the last fiveyears, it would be just in
putting a little bit of a boxaround what we do.
And I'll say, growing up alittle bit as a company when we
(19:33):
were a 10 person organization,that's a different behavior, a
different mindset than when youget to a 20-person organization,
and now, as a 44-personorganization, there's even more
that's just required to makethat really run well.
And that transition is hard.
(19:54):
A lot of companies, mostcompanies, don't succeed in
making that transition.
Now the fact that we sort ofmade that transition as an
almost 40-year-old company isvery unique.
I would say Most companiesprobably figure that out in the
first two to five years, butthat probably helped us in the
long run.
But I mean just coming in thedoor, I mean, the first thing I
(20:17):
saw was a very passionate andtalented team that came in every
day and worked their asses offto make our customers successful
, because we were, as I alwayslike to say, we were born into
the industry.
Right, I mean, we were born atHerbrooks.
We didn't start as a supplierto the industry.
Right, I mean, we were born atHerbrooks, we didn't start as a
supplier to the industry.
We were on the farm solvingreal world farm problems every
(20:41):
day, and that's what made ussuccessful.
But when you have the marketshare that we have and the
industry relies on you to thatlevel, you can't sustain that
unless you put a little bit of abox around it.
And when I say put a little bitof a box around it, I really
mean process, and I think we'regoing to talk a little bit about
(21:02):
that and probably in moredetail but just making it so
that when you come in every day,you know what your day is going
to look like and you know howyou're going to solve things and
you know what the team aroundyou, what your internal
customers and what your internalsuppliers are going to do,
(21:23):
because it's defined.
Somebody wrote it down right.
I mean, in the first 40 yearsof this company, nobody ever
wrote it down.
Everybody knew what to do.
But when every day comes at youlike it's a surprise, it's hard
to scale that and it's hard tocontinuously improve that, it's
hard to train that.
(21:44):
So that's, I would say, in thelast five years.
I mean, when I started, when Iwalked in the door, pmsi was 28
people and now it's 44 people,five years later.
And a lot of people might say,well, why, what caused that?
And a lot's going on, obviouslyfrom a macro perspective in the
industry, but a lot of it wasjust based on a need we couldn't
(22:08):
sustain what we were doing withthe resources we had and sort
of the methodology that we had,and so we changed a lot of the
methodology that we had and sowe changed a lot of it.
It was painful, but I think,looking back, I think pretty
much maybe not everybody, butmost people would say, yeah, we
(22:28):
went in the right direction andwe're heading in the right
direction.
Brandon Mulnix (22:30):
Yeah, I remember that time that was coming in
from outside and basically myjob at that point with Doug
Powell was hey, we got to put aprocess together.
You're the first projectmanager.
I stepped in for someone whowas in that role at the
beginning and was like, hey,this is too much.
And so I jumped in and had tostart drawing the line from
(22:54):
start to finish and realizingthat, as you mentioned, surprise
, our customers knew it wascoming.
Well, how did we know that theproject was coming?
How did we start to fill thatinformation out?
And just gathering that all theway through, that was fun
because I think I had it aboutdrafted and done on your first
day and it was nice to be ableto hand off this project of
(23:14):
here's kind of the flow.
So that way you at least youknow could say oh okay, we got.
You know this helps, helpstrain, you know, and we're still
using it today, which is thefun part.
So, when it comes to process,I've gotten to witness your
passion, your, your focus aroundprocess.
Why is that passion and why isit so important to you?
Budd Bentley (23:37):
Yeah, great question.
I was walking with my wifehaving this conversation this
morning and we were actuallytalking about we play trivia
with our friends on Wednesdaynight and we're just we're
walking as we do in the morningand I said to her hey, I really
want to propose to the triviateam that we, you know, take a
(23:59):
little bit of a differentapproach, you know, in how we
collaborate.
And she laughed out loud andshe said to me you just really
can't help it, can you?
You just have to think aboutthings from the perspective of
you know, how do we, how do wedefine it and and, uh, improve
it.
And I was like, yeah, I, Iguess, I guess, start to finish.
(24:20):
That's how my brain works.
Uh, from the time I wake up inthe morning to the time I go to
bed.
I very much believe in embracethe process, and the process
will set you free.
I don't think we well, I, I forsure didn't define the process
that we use here.
We simply documented it.
Right, like I said, everybodyknows what they do.
(24:42):
But unless you write it down,how do you share it, how do you
point out where there might bean inefficiency and change it?
And so my passion really comesfrom.
When you get a cross-functionalteam in a room and talk about
how you interact and where theexchanges happen and where there
(25:04):
might be inefficiencies, that'sgold.
And most people don'tnecessarily mind that gold
because just don't see it fromthat perspective.
They see what they do and theymaybe see a little bit of the
fringe of where the exchangeshappen between the groups.
They see a little bit of that,but they don't see the whole
(25:27):
thing.
And I just always want to seethe whole thing and I think
that's what drives me.
I want to see that wholepicture and then I want to share
it.
And once you show that to people, it's powerful because then the
working level team that'sactually doing it you can
actually make their lives better.
When you show them the wholepicture and they can see the
(25:49):
interaction, they not onlyunderstand how their lives can
be better, but they understandhow they can make the people
downstream from them make theirlives better.
And it's just.
I think it's really powerful tolook at things that way and and
yeah, it's uh, there's not alot of magic to it, because you
get the right people in the roomthat do the work and you just
(26:10):
write down what they say, andand then you, you know, you turn
it into something that that'seasy for everybody to read and
see, something visual, and andyou go from there.
So, yeah, I, I, I very muchlove sitting down and really
getting to know how things workAlways have.
Brandon Mulnix (26:29):
It's always interesting being on the other
side of it when you'rechallenged with either a new
product or new, new piece ofthings, where you'd be like it
doesn't follow the process andyou'd be across the room from me
and going, no, it's going tofollow the process and, sure
enough, after enough thinking,slowing down and realizing, yeah
(26:50):
, it does meet the process.
You have quoting, you haveproduction and design, and then
you have getting it out in thefield.
You keep it simple and it isinteresting because that is a
challenge with a lot of newproducts and a lot of new things
is, hey, this is a unicorn andit's off over here, and how do
we make it part of our everydayprocess?
So over the last five years,there's been a lot of new
(27:14):
technology that we've developedas a company and we've been part
of.
When it comes to new technology, when it comes to new products,
how is that influential to yourhelping us as a company, grow
over the last five years?
Budd Bentley (27:28):
Yeah, so PMSI or Prism Controls has always been,
I mean, really two things right.
We are a technology company,right, and technology companies
have to develop new technologiesor someone else will.
Combined with that, though,we're a service company, right.
(27:48):
I mean, we serve the industry.
We served essentially as the ITteam or the technology team for
Herbruck's, and we expandedthat to the entire layer
industry really in our countryand even abroad in a lot of
cases.
So combining those two thingstechnology and service is hard
(28:11):
to do.
I mean, if you think about whatdo most companies do with their
IT team, they stash it underfinance or under human resources
because nobody knows what to dowith it.
And we're basically that We'vebuilt a company.
Being that, and not just fromthe standpoint of IT, is just a
(28:33):
lot of service, but developingthe technologies that we then
service.
So it's a really unique model,and I think when I walked in the
door here I was a littlesurprised at just how little
time we had for the new productdevelopment side, because we
(28:54):
were so engrossed in the service, which obviously our customers
appreciate us servicing them tothat level.
But at the end of the day,there's also an expectation of
what's the new thing?
What's next?
What will make my farm moreefficient in the future?
Not just what did know, whatdid you do you know last year.
(29:17):
So part of part of what we didis is really make a conscious
effort to separate what I nowcall sort of the operational
side of the business rightServicing customers, building
panels, serving our currentproduct line, our current
(29:37):
solutions, and then the newproduct development part of it.
So we really had to make aneffort to separate those two out
, because they were so blendedtogether that obviously
servicing customers is alwaysgoing to come first.
If you're focused on doing thatand your bandwidth is so
limited for developing newproducts, you can't put things
(30:00):
on a timeline, you can't putthings on a cadence, you can't
deliver anything.
So the importance of putting alittle bit of a process around
that as well and really sort ofcarving out the resources was
kind of job one.
And then that's when youstarted to see things like Reach
as a mobile app and you startedto see things like Eggsite and
(30:21):
you started to see things likeTherm sort of come out of just
spending more resources, moretime, more energy on developing
those things.
I mean the problem statementswere pretty clear, right.
Everybody was frustrated withegg count accuracy.
The risk of fire is high andjeopardizes the business, so the
(30:42):
problem space was super clear,but you're never going to put
anything out there if you don'tspend the time and energy and
resources on it.
So we did that and we'restarting to see the fruits of
that labor in those new products, and we've got some even more
exciting things coming, as youof course know, and I know that
that's what Eric's passion is aswell.
(31:04):
Obviously that's where he comesfrom and I know that that will
continue.
So I'm very, very excited aboutwhat we have coming down the
road, and more so even than thespecific solutions, but the
things we put in place to makesure we can sustain that, the
resources we have, the processeswe have and the vision that we
(31:26):
have for what that future lookslike in terms of technology is
super exciting to a nerd like me.
Brandon Mulnix (31:34):
You are a nerd, for sure.
You can quote any type of movie.
It's one of those fun thingsabout you.
So, over the past five years,what is something that you have
overcome or a struggle thatyou've really had to get over
the top of?
Budd Bentley (31:52):
You want the whole list or just the top 10?
Oh man, I don't know.
That's the easy answer,Probably one that anyone would
say was you know, starting abrand new career, basically a
new job in a new industry with anew team.
You know, days before COVIDhappened was certainly presented
(32:15):
its challenges, but I don'teven think about that in terms
of being at the top because, Idon't know, it almost gave me
sort of a I don't know if excuseis the right word, but being
the new guy and having all theinteractions limited, and it
almost gave me sort of a softstart versus being slammed into
(32:38):
it, Right.
So I, I don't know, I almostview that a little bit as a
blessing and a curse.
I would honestly say justacceptance from the team was,
was huge for me.
I mean, if you think about the,the challenges that the company
and the team was going throughat that me, I mean if you think
about the challenges that thecompany, the team, was going
through at that time.
I mean Doug had led for so longand Steven for so long before
(33:01):
him and those two did an amazingjob with just so in tuned with
our customers.
I mean, essentially, we're ourcustomers, right, I mean
literally born into the industry.
And then Craig, obviously, withhis vast experience and coming
in and, by the way, I have togive Craig the credit for even
(33:21):
starting project the concept ofbringing project managers aboard
at PMSI.
Well, that was not my idea.
That was Craig and that was, inmy mind, one of the most key
developments in again maturingus as an organization.
So following that was hard.
Especially new guy don't evenknow what end of the chicken,
(33:43):
the egg, comes out, essentiallycoming into a brand new industry
.
So no street cred whatsoeverthrown into the mix.
And I think starting to gainthe team's trust in becoming a
credible leader was the biggestchallenge that I had to overcome
.
And I'd love to tell you that Ihave a secret recipe for that
(34:05):
and I know exactly whatcontributed to that and how that
happened, but I have no idea.
But I'm thankful that it did.
Brandon Mulnix (34:13):
Well, you overcame.
I mean, you're leaving quite anincredible legacy here, with
the processes in place, amanagement system that has set
us up to lead the company asleaders, leadership, development
, expansion.
There's a lot of things thatyou're a little humble to not
(34:35):
say, but there's so many thingsthat you've been able to help
lead us through Avian influenzafrom a manufacturing side, covid
.
These are all things thatpeople take for granted because
it was a blip in their radar.
But this was at the start ofyour career in this industry.
So I get the idea, cause I also, as the same time, came in new,
new career, new job, neweverything, new industry and and
(34:58):
if it wasn't for this greatindustry, great people it
probably would have been a muchmore difficult.
So a lot, a lot of hats off topeople that have reached out to
you over the years, too, to helpguide you and coach you from
the industry as well.
So, all right, what's next forBudd Bentley?
Budd Bentley (35:15):
Yeah, so obviously very public information already
that I'm making the transition,the jump over to Big Dutchman,
succeeding Clovis as he retiresand, of course, eric Hansen is
taking over here at Prism.
You mentioned the leadershipframework or the business
operating framework, eos, and Idon't know that there's a lot of
(35:39):
people that know that weutilize it, but I know some
others in the industry utilizethat framework as well and I
always liked it right Because,again, process guy, it's a
process and it's dead simple.
Liked it right Because, again,process guy, it's a process and
it's dead simple.
Now, transitioning into bigDutchman, the value of it is
immeasurable as we hand thingsoff, because I'm not handing off
(36:02):
something that's in my headwhich is super hard to do.
Nobody wants to get in thereanyway, trust me.
But I'm handing off a plan thatwe have developed as a
leadership team and as the wholeteam because of that framework
and to be able to contrast thatwith going into Big Dutchman,
where that framework doesn'texist, it's just a lot harder.
(36:24):
Now, mind you, big Dutchman isalso 10X the size and scale and
scope, so there's a lot involvedin that as well.
But I think that the handoff toEric is way easier than I ever
imagined it would be because ofthat framework being in place.
But yeah, so stepping in thedoor at Big Dutchman, honestly
(36:46):
I've been saying that and thisweek's been a daunting week, but
I've been saying that I getmore and more excited about it
every day, and that excitementprobably stems from the fact
that I kind of see the samething that I saw when I walked
in the door here at Prism.
Controls is a super passionate,intelligent team that works
(37:08):
their asses off every day tomake our customers successful,
and just the challenges of nothaving that process in place.
Now there are more processes atBig Dutchman than there were
here, quite honestly, becausethe scale of the company just
sort of dictates that.
But there's so much that's notyet defined, so there's a lot of
(37:30):
low hanging fruit.
That again, I just think when Ilook at the team.
We can make people's livesbetter just by kind of writing
it down and wrapping our mindsaround it, and so I get super
excited when I think about doingthat, and at the same time it's
pretty daunting, right?
I mean, Clovis is a hard act tofollow.
(37:52):
He has built an amazing team,he has tremendous respect within
the industry, been aroundforever, and that's a tough act
to follow.
So I feel like I'm kind ofthrown in that same boat again.
At least now I have a littlebit of street cred within the
industry.
But there's a lot to learn.
It's daunting, for sure, butI'm excited about the challenge.
Brandon Mulnix (38:16):
Well, they have a great team.
They're growing.
If you bring even 1% of thechanges that you brought here at
a scale of that company, it'sgoing to make some huge
improvements and the EOS systemhas from being on the leadership
team.
I love structure in that way tohave a meeting that I know I'm
(38:37):
going to go into and I know thatit's going to follow an agenda
and we're not just going to betalking about just anything,
because what a waste of time.
I've been in those meetingsthroughout my career in
different places.
Where you go in the meetingthere's no agenda, there's
nothing, and you're justabsolutely like what did we
accomplish here?
No one leaves the room with ato-do list.
(38:58):
Everybody is like yeah, yeah,this is what we talked about.
And they leave the room andthey don't even know what they
agreed and the power of thatthrough developing it here at
this scale and being able totake that same philosophy.
That applies to a farm, becauseI've talked with a number of
(39:18):
farmers that implement that EOSsystem and how they have the
L10s and then they have it downto the different departments and
divisions and how that justaligns the company.
You know the simple things ofvalues.
So we're all saying the samething.
You know we come to work everyday and we know these are the
core values.
(39:38):
And then measuring people bythose core values is so huge and
I love our core values.
You know we always give Dougthe credit for Shiva getter, you
know, and and people like whatthe heck is that?
But we know here what it meanswhen you're walking through a
room and you see a piece oftrash on the floor and you pick
it up and you put it awaybecause you give a shit about
(39:59):
this industry and about thecompany and it matters.
That's the people that I wantto work with, that's the people
that we've hired, and andthere's people that you know,
probably over the time, don'tfeel they live up to the values
and they go away from thecompany.
And so those key factors thatEOS has kind of helped us mature
(40:20):
in, you didn't have experiencein it, I didn't have experience
in it, our team didn't.
I think we went from like eight,nine people in a meeting down
to four, which was huge, justbecause it was able to really
focus on what the company neededto do, because there's so many
distractions and you're going tohave even way more distractions
over there than you had here,but let somebody else do that
(40:49):
task so you can focus onsomething bigger, you know, such
as maybe, taking out the trash.
You know doing the simplethings, because no job has been
above you at all, like you'renot above any job.
You literally will do anything.
Do the dishes, you know, takecare of the, take care of the
trash.
Like I said, you've been out onthe shop floor, you've been in
farms, I mean.
(41:10):
So that's one of the thingsthat's nice that you get to
continue to take up, but you'vegot that many more people to do
some of those things that youneed to focus on the big stuff,
which is what you're really,really good at.
So, as we get ready to wrap uphere, bud, you came into the
industry you were new.
You're fresh and new in theindustry.
You're getting ready to go intothe next level of the industry.
(41:30):
What advice do you have forsomebody that's just getting
started in this industry?
Budd Bentley (41:36):
Oh, I don't know that I'm great at giving advice.
I'm maybe great at just talking.
So I'll just talk and we'll seewhether that turns into
anything useful.
I always like to say and Idon't say it because I think it
has any benefit other than Ireally think it's true, farmers
(41:58):
are the best customers theyreally are.
I mean coming from theautomotive industry where
everything is so I'll use theword adversarial.
I'll use the word adversarialnot just the supplier-customer
(42:22):
relationship, but even withinthe different OEMs.
They all have their own sort ofculture and there's just such a
different feel when you walkinto a farm and you're sitting
across the table from someone oryou're out in the barn talking
about real problems.
It's just so refreshing not tohave to spend mental energy
thinking about gosh, what dothey really mean?
(42:43):
Or what are they reallythinking, because they just tell
you Whether it's good or bad.
It's all great, because nothaving to spend mental energy on
that means you can actuallyspend mental energy on solving a
problem or making somethingbetter, making people's lives
better.
I think that maybe the advicethere is just be present in
(43:06):
those moments when you'retalking not just to your
customers but to anybody in theindustry or on the farm, because
you're hearing the real thing.
You don't have to think aboutwhat does it mean or what are
they trying to communicate,because generally, I think
they're just communicating it.
So don't miss it.
(43:28):
Listen to it and then act on itright.
Farmers are based on action.
Farmers are the originalinnovators, so we got to do
things and being able to focusyour mental energy on okay, I
heard what they said.
Let's go solve it.
It's unique.
(43:48):
I will say it's unique in thisindustry.
So pay attention to thosethings and then get out there
and do something.
Maybe that's my advice.
Brandon Mulnix (43:57):
No, that's great advice.
That's great advice because,living that out over the last
five years as myself, it's true,I mean we talk about how great
our customers are, but the factthat they're all out there to
feed the world Very simple, verysimple product it's an egg
Chicken does most of the work.
(44:18):
The farmer manages to make surethe chicken is doing that work
and giving them the bestenvironments and all that.
But it's interesting because,again, when you're talking with
them, they're not worried aboutthe farm down the street,
they're worried about the bird,they're worried about their
people.
They're worried about the samethings that we talk about here,
(44:40):
as the important pieces is howdo we help the farmers feed the
world?
It's not about us, it's aboutthem feeding the world and it's
ultimately about the chickenfeeding the world.
And how can we have more ofthose chickens feeding the world
?
Because that's what makes theworld a better place the food,
the nutrition.
And when you were talking aboutautomotive, I'm thinking well,
how did you change the worldwith the vanity mirror and the
(45:02):
car?
I'm sure there's some women outthere that would really
appreciate that, where, yeah,that vanity mirror has saved
them with a lot of things.
But in the case of the industrythat we're in, the industry
that you're going to continue in, and a new role with a great
company that we get to continueto interact with.
We're excited because here isour leader that's helped us grow
(45:26):
, go up to the next level andthen pull a lot of ideas and
pull a lot of the things thatwe've been working really hard
on into that next level for uswhere we can continue to grow.
It's one thing to have thefarmers as our market here in
the US, but there's peopleoutside the US that really want
what we have to offer and yetover the years it's hard to
(45:51):
start that business down thatroad.
But to have the experience ofbig Dutchman who does it every
day, it's really nice to havethat.
And so for you to be able tosay, hey, I know a company that
does that, hey, I know a companythat does that, and how can we
better serve the industry andhelp us scale up in that way?
So but I want to thank you forbeing a guest on the podcast.
(46:11):
It really means a lot.
I had to get you in before youget too busy over in Holland and
I don't get a chance to see youmuch.
We've had a great five years.
It's been fun.
Budd Bentley (46:21):
I've enjoyed it as well, Brandon, and you're too
late.
I'm already very busy.
Brandon Mulnix (46:26):
Well, as I mean, I have to say you know, you've
been more than a boss.
You've been a friend, acolleague.
We've grown together, we'vefought the fight together and
it's been just absolute pleasurelooking forward to next
chapters, to see you besuccessful, see how we continue
to grow as well.
And so, listeners, it's notevery day that we get a leader
that's in transition on the show.
(46:48):
It's always the scary timeWe've learned, because now the
transition's not one day fromthe 15th to the 16th.
It's been over a period ofmonths.
It's been a plan that's beencoming for over a year and then
that's helped the transition allthe way down through the
company.
So nobody's surprised onOctober 1st when we have
(47:09):
officially a new president here.
But he's been doing the workfor the last six months and
everybody's just kind of flowing.
So thank you, listeners.
I don't have to really shareanything much about Prism
Controls, because this wholeepisode is about Prism Controls.
But again, this episodewouldn't be possible without
Prism Controls and the fact thatthey believe in bringing you
(47:30):
the industry knowledge that ismore than just about technology,
but about leadership, aboutsome of the things that we've
been learning and sharing it.
Knowledge is not about keepingit for yourself.
Knowledge is about sharing itwith the industry, so thank you,
prism Controls, for doing that.
Please like share?
Share this podcast with others.
It's how it grows, continues tofind more people, new people in
(47:53):
the industry that are learning,so I couldn't do it without you
listeners.
So listeners, have a great day.
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