Episode Transcript
Hello my friends. This is Brett Keasling of the EO Podcast Network and host of the ESOP podcast. This episode of the Owner two Honor Podcast with Jesse Tyler is the second of three parts where Jesse is called upon his colleagues at Hypertherm to look at a specific aspect of employee ownership. Usually Jesse's guesswork at company facilities where they're surrounded by many other employee owners. But Jesse was curious how the road warriors often in sales and distribution represent and reflect employee ownership when traveling away from their colleagues and fellow employee owners for a large period of time. Today's episode is truly international with Jesse's guest based in South Africa, Europe, and India. Jesse talks to his guests where he finds them, and sometimes the audio is not quite the quality we. But I hope you'll agree the authenticity of the recording reflects the experiences of Jesse's guests and makes it very much worth it. I hope you enjoy. Welcome to the Owner to Owner podcast with your host, Jesse Tyler, part of the EO Podcast Network. Welcome to the Owner to Owner podcast on the EO Podcast Network. This podcast grew out of a friendship with Brett Keesling, who is an advocate for employee owner. and this podcast is about hearing the voices of employee owners and to have discussions about a range of ownership experiences and culture topics, and bringing more insight to the individual ownership experience often in employee-owned companies is something we share. Is that we is the most common word, and I'm trying to have the guest to use I and bring it to an individual experience. Well, I often feature, rank and file workers. The goal of this three part series is to bring more insights into the experience of sales and marketing. The faces of the company often in remote and global locations, far from the company headquarters in New Hampshire, to hear and learn from owners who do not see their coworkers daily, weekly, or even monthly. What does ownership mean to them? How does it impact their work and experience? So we're looking forward to hearing unique insights from Tim, Casey and Coon, and I'll let themselves introduce themselves in just a moment. For listeners here, for the first time, we work at Hypertherm Associates. A global manufacturing and technology company that is a global leader in plasma cutting water jet and software to power the industrial economy. Want to introduce you to the voices of Hypertherm and let them introduce themselves and share a little bit about what they do and where they're calling in from. So Casey, if you could get us started, we'd love to hear sort of your name, your role, and we'll get the conversation. Jesse, thanks for the opportunity to be part of this podcast. Uh, hello everyone. I am Casey Srini version and people call me Casey Insert. I'm a distribution sales manager handling countries like India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and Bangladesh. I'm with, uh, hyper uh, associates for more than eight years now. And. This is my longest tenure in any organization. I have more than 23 years of experience in welding and cutting industries, and I have a passion for helping my customers find the best solution for the needs. This is about me, and I'm excited to meet you all through this podcast. Thank you. Excellent. Thank you very much. Casey Costin, could you introduce yourself? Sure. Also, thank you for the invitation. Great pleasure. My name is Koku. I'm the strategic account manager of Hyper Term in Europe, middle East, India, and Africa. I live, and right now I'm in Bucharest, Romania, so my role at Hyper is basically to develop relationships with the most important. Strategic customers of hyper term to help them, to support them, to optimize their, uh, cutting operations, to improve their, uh, end user experience, and obviously to also facilitate the adoption of our cutting technologies. I joined hyper term 2012, so 11 years ago as a distribution sales manager in. 14 different countries in Southeast Europe, but since 2016, I'm in the current role of working with about 90 different companies in 40 countries. And last thing to say, my, my last role before joining Hyper was a business unit manager for the H B C division of European leader in H B C Linda by Swedish Corporation. Thank you very much, Tim. Thanks Jesse. And young, hello to all the listeners in this podcast and it's great privilege to be able to share insights together. Yeah, so my name's Tim sra. I'm the DSM distribution sales manager for the Subsi Africa region. For those that dunno the region, it's quite vast stretches on the, on the west coast of Africa from the southern tip of South Africa. All the way up to Nigeria, and then on the eastern side, all the way up to Ethiopia, and then obviously everything in between. So it's a vast continent where you can fit North America, south America, China, Europe, India, virtually the whole world into one continent. So yeah, have a lot of fun there. I've been with Hyper Serum now for. Just short, probably around about 18 months, so still fairly new. Before that, I held a number of roles with global companies such as Bush Tobo, welding, eSUB, and Health senior roles in those organizations in the welding industry. So my experience prior to joining Hypertherm spans around 25 years in the industry. Yeah, so just that, that's me in a. That's great. We'll welcome aboard to the three of you. So I'm gonna jump right in and ask you what you have found in your time, your, your different tenures, your all of you have vast reach and many channel partners and customers. What is the same or different? And I'm really curious mostly about the differences. What's different for you working at an employee-owned company? Versus a private or publicly traded company. Kc, if you could start us off, what's different about working at an employee-owned company? Yeah, thanks, Jesse. Again, companies that offer ESOPs provide employees with an opportunity to become owners of the company. This can lead to a sense of pride and motivation to the employees to contribute to the company's. As their own financial wellbeing is directly tied to the company's performance. This will also lead in taking initiatives, being responsible, accountable, and to deliver high quality work every single time. On the other hand, uh, uh, working in a non-employee owned company that does not offers ESOPs typically means employees do not have a direct stake in the company's. While they may receive other benefits from the company, there shall be a lack of investment in the success of the company. Reduced to motivation, probably a lower sense of security and lack of alignment with the company's goal. While both type of companies offer benefits to their employee, the nature of benefits can be quite different depending on whether or not the company offers, uh, ESOPs or an employee owned company. Thank you. And for, for listeners and, and even for the guests, There, there may be some hitches in the audio when four friends are talking, literally across four continents. There could be some hiccups in the wifi and the recording, so we, we just for you as a guest, don't worry about it. We'll, we'll roll through and for our listeners, we appreciate your patience as we talk a across the vast. Distance. So we'll kind of incorporate that as a normal part of this. And, and even when we, when I, most of the time I'm talking to rank and file workers, it's not any different. They often don't have adequate technology to record a podcast and we just roll with it. That's, that's part of the authenticity to the owner, and we'll have that with this global conversation. So Costin, for, for you, how. Kind of what's different about working at an esop? You've been with us for a while, 11 years. Yeah. You know, what do you find is, is a difference? We'd love to hear your insights. Well, yeah, first of all, for, for me, at Hyper, it was the first time to hear and benefit, uh, esop. And honestly, my first impact on our understanding as a new associate was pretty much limited to benefits. You know, I thought it's amazing that the profit will be also shared with me every year. So it took me, I dunno, a couple of years when I really understood the real magnitude and implications of associate on associate share companies. You know, even still talking about benefits. I understood that actually there is a long-term vision for you as an associate, and that will get every year new shares allocated to add to to your, let's call it retirement portfolio. So that long-term vision combined with the no lay of policy. really gives people the chance to be more strategic to to, you know, to also adopt themselves a long-term vision and to stay long in the company because you also have time then to dedicate for both personal development but also for the organizational development even through, I don't know, simple things like continuous improvement. And I believe, I really believe that amazing things happen when people don't have that pressure of often strategy changes because of the quarter results. I dunno. For, for instance, it helped me a lot to quicker build, build that belonging feeling. It accelerated my mean immersion in the company and, you know, feeling the, of the inclusion as well because there are people, uh, there saying that it's a mistake to get in love with the brand or the company that you work for. But then, yes, when you own, own a part of that company, even if it's a small part, then you feel less guilty to getting love and you know, to invest passion in your work and do not see, I mean, everything just as a contractual relation with an employer. That's great. I appreciate the insight. Yeah. My next question for the three of you is, is really extending the first question about, you know, does being an owner impact the way you work? And you, you're already sort of answering that, but I'll give you all a chance to, to take another round on that as well, Tim. What's different about working at an ESOP or an employee-owned company for you? Yeah, thanks for, I mean, I'll probably leave a little bit more detail as we unpack and go on a little bit, Jesse. So, yeah, to answer your question, you know, I, I sort of immediately think, you know, the role that I'm, I'm fulfilling within Hypotherm as an ESOP organization. It's very similar to the previous job I had with a, a huge global welding brand. So the job per se, in terms of, you know, the roles and responsibilities are very, very similar. They're a lot of synergies, but, but, but the big difference about working for Hypotherm is you feel valued. And you know, that's a very deep thing that I'm saying now, you know. When you feel valued, excuse me, that's my dog outside. So if you are barking, it's not me. That's all right. Authentic. You feel, you feel valued. And I remember going back to a little story when I was going through my interview process and I remember who. Our, our leader at the time, Andrea Rombouts, you know, we were having a, we really just connected and I, I even remember through the interview process, I said, oh, something different. Yeah. And, you know, that's, it's not like a new, new kid in the block. And I remember saying, tore, I want to be happy again. And, uh, yeah. And, and, and I think for me, the key thing is value. Because with value, so many things flow from value. Truly being truly valued, it, it, it makes you feel like you belong. and hopefully as we chat long, so I'll unpack more art a little bit around what their value means. But that's just to me, short and sweet. You know, value means everything to me. And, and working for, for an ESOP organization, you feel valued. That's great. That's great. Well, if we can extend that slightly, Tim, how does being an owner impact the way you work? And I want to give you the, well you think for a moment. I wanna give you context. One of, I find it interesting to, to play around with the harder topics around employee ownership. And we've had some folks come. Come in entry level to very senior level. And occasionally we get the comment that, Hey, wait a second, I don't work harder cuz I'm an owner. I always worked hard, you know, I resent the implication. And other people say that their sense of belonging, their sense of value gives them a different dedication and they work differently because of it. So you can pick whichever you way you wanna go, but I want, I want to hear from all three of you. Does being an owner impact how you work? And if so, can you share some insight? For our listeners. Yeah, it's a great question. I mean, you know, if you look at the question, what does ownership mean to you? I mean, it means everything to me. It means, you know, my, my contribution means something, you know, I'm not just, uh, uh, an employee and I'd only be disrespectful to, to the term employee, but, but you really feel like it means something and. It also makes you feel like you, um, contributing to something far more than just profits for selected private investors. You know, you are, it just, there's a deep sense of, of privilege and, and a deep sense of, you know, you want to leave the organization. in, in, in, you know, when you go on one day, you want to lead it to the next guy coming in almost in a better condition than what you found it, because it means that much to you. So, you know, I just think that the, the Ssop model and, and working for Hypotherm. That drive is far, far more deeper than just looking at sales numbers and performing. And, you know, it, it, it goes far more than that. And then with that attitude as a salesperson, by nature, we are target driven. I mean, it's in our d n a and uh, that certainly doesn't go away, but, But you feel like you contributed to something far bigger than just the numbers you see in front of you. Yeah. That's great. I appreciate, appreciate the insight and I think it really a recurring theme from, you know, talking over the years to really thousands of people about ownership and speaking at conferences. The, you've hit on the three of you have very quickly. Touched on some key themes that come up different ways, different formats, different ways of putting it. But you know, continuous improvement is the ultimate, uh, ownership behavior. You wanna, you wanna leave the place better than you founded and make it better for those around you. Ient the belonging. changes it, it impacts your identity. It goes beyond, you know, punching in and punching out and just feeling valued. So it, it's neat. You've, you've already brought up those, those themes talking to, not just in the US but globally, where those are, those are very common themes that rise to the top. So I appreciate the three of you. Sharing that kc, we'll, we'll go to you next For ownership. How does it impact how you work in, in the countries you work in and how you do your job? Yeah, Jesse, um, uh, ownership impact the way I work, yes, certainly it has impacted in a way I work this, the relationship with the company has changed. Being a Warner, I would say that I have a stake in the company's success and my own wellbeing is tied up to the company's performance. So this means like, this has led to a sense of. Pride and motivation to me to work harder and contribute more to the company's success. And, uh, ownership also has led to the greater sense of, uh, autonomy and decision making authority in me. I would say that I have taken more initiatives and have been more proactive in addressing the problems. And identifying the opportunities as I have a vested interest in the success of the company. This has led to a more entrepreneurial spirit in me and a stronger drive to innovate in general. Being a Warner, uh, has led, uh, to a greater sense of commitment and responsibility to the company, and has resulted me in being more productive, motivated. Engaged in my work, which have a, a positive impact on the company's overall performance. So this has certainly, uh, has impacted being a owner in my work. That's great. Thank you. Coon, what are your thoughts on this? Thank you, Casey. Jesse, I wanted to say it's a, it's a good question, but if you don't mind, I actually found a bit of rhetorical question. Yes, of course. There is an impact on our work. I mean, you. Think different when you're part of such organization. I, I don't want to say that you really think like an owner, like when you have your own company and you are the only owner of the company, but it's going in that direction a lot. I mean, it's, and you are. Not anymore feeling like just an employee. In many organizations, I mean, traditional ones, people tend to focus on their work only and don't care to see the big picture or the impact of the interaction at the company level. And I can give some examples, you know, from my career, you know, a salesperson might prefer to offer the highest possible discount. Just to comfortably secure the sale and personal bonus, you know, even that impacts the business profitability or decision maker at the production level might purchase. So let's say costly, extra capacities, just to make sure there will be no bottlenecks in their area. But maybe that, uh, unnecessary capital allocation will be the better return somewhere else. So there are thousands, millions of examples. You know, when you think about your own piece and not the overall. When you work for an ESOP company and you know you are exposed and that's the great benefit of, of hyper then that it's, it shows you the entire process, how we make profit on and how we share that. Then you really start to see that big picture and the sense of your, of your work. You also start off on thinking about the overall implications, uh, including profitability of the things you do. You know, you, you become more strategic. Instead of thinking about closing your next small deal on your list, you might think to work on something that it's, let's say, with a higher impact, more, more strategic. And one more thing to add here, I find I find a bit relevant. also, when it's about spending money, you are also wise. Yeah, I, I remember in the early years I used to do some stupid, really stupid calculations in my mind. In my mind, I used to tell myself, okay, if for all the travels of this week I choose, let's say hotels and or a flight with lower rates, I could save $200. But you know, how much is that return for me as a profit sharing? So, you know, I, I started to do this, this calculation, dividing 200 by 2000. Well, at that time, 1000 associates, you know, and taking from that result, only a fraction that goes to profit sharing. So I realized, I realized for me that it's about like less than 5 cents. Mm-hmm. you know, but then I, I also also realized that in a, in a ESOP company, it is not only about me or you as individuals, you know, it is rather, you should see it as a whole. So those $200 of savings, they go directly to our bottom line. You know, those. I mean much more when you consider the overall capital allocation and you know, obviously the big impact is when most of the people start to think the same way because like in hyper is not anymore about $200, but instead probably many millions and the return is more significant. You just need to have that mindset to think in that direction. That's great. That's. Yeah, one of our executive vice presidents, Jim Miller, who left Hypertherm mm-hmm. last year to go be a c e o. He, he would talk, uh, be out on the production floor and just talking to people that are sort of new to ownership and trying to make it real. Had a nice way of talking about it. And one of his things was, it's just a whole lot easier to save the dollar and move it over than it is to earn a dollar selling. It takes. Selling dollars to end up with a dollar. But if we can work together and you know, for your example, if we have, you know, 2000 of us globally saving 5 cents here and 5 cents there at the end of today, we can have a lot of money that could go towards investing in the company or coming back to us profit. And when people get that, it's amazing. And, and I've mentioned this before on the podcast, one of the quirks of a, you know, a company when people are really all in on it, is that we don't do a lot with company swag. You know, giveaways, food at events. We used to do more catering type stuff to make it nice for people at training. And they started scolding me and my team like, no, this is too much money. I want it my profit sharing. And so if you have that sort of drive from all levels and 10 years, it's amazing what you can do to reinvest in the people and reinvest in the company and equipment. So that, that, that's a fun lady to hear that. So I just wanna make sure, sort of a quick round, a sentence or two about what ownership means to you. If you haven't already said it, Tim, we'll do, we'll start the round with you. What does ownership mean to Tim? I think, you know, it's, it's, it's something that. That is deep inside you. I always refer it to, to, you know, when you sit on, on, on the deck of your home, you know, and you overlook and looking at the sunset, you go, this is my home, you know, this is my home. Nice. And I think the same sensation or, and, and feelings I get for hypotherm, something I'm incredibly proud of. I'm part of something, but that I, as an owner contribute towards. So, you know, as again, I can leave. Either badly or I can care for it and, and, and nurture it and, and, and put love into it, really. I mean, I'm not being too over, over dramatic here, but it, you know, being an owner is, you're not so much a passer by, it's not so much a career step or, or you know, you feel like, wow, I belong. You know, I'm, yeah. And, and it's, it's something very deep for me that, that it's, it's quite difficult to describe, to be quite honest with you, but hopefully in my little way, I've, I've made you understand what it makes me feel to be an owner. The fact that I can't articulate it too well tells you Yeah. How deep it is for me, if you know what I'm saying. Jc, for sure. And, and part of this is sharing your voice and insight with. The global ownership community so that so other owners can hear themselves and smile. I hope in a few weeks when this episode drops and people hear all three of you, I think there'll be a lot of owners out there smiling saying, yeah, I can relate to that. Hey, that sounds like me. Or, I just had that kind of conversation with somebody. We're going for that and I, I didn't state it directly, so I want to, is that one of the goals of this three part series with Global Hypotherm Sales is that for our associates who you do not get to spend time with, Or it's harder to meet with limited travel to headquarters for them, but also for other ESOPs that have a disparate workforce. Increasingly owners even in much smaller ESOPs that don't get to spend time together. Comradery and and insight. Wanna bring your voices to our associates and other employee owners that are maybe back at a factory making the parts for the sales to to hear your voice and understand. What that kind of experience is. And so I just wanna make sure you understand the, the clear goal of this. And I think you're all, you're all doing a great job bringing those insights to it. So I wanna, I wanna ask Casey and Coston about what ownership means to them. But what I do wanna ask you next, Tim, you can start thinking about, is you guys are all kind of, we would say in the U asked, or at least in New England, we would say, you're all kind of lone wolf. You're lone wolves where there's, you know, there's people back at the headquarters that see each other all the time. that can be very easy on camaraderie. How do you do it when you each are responsible for, I think among you, I think about 75 countries, not 75 miles. So I'm gonna come back to you on that one because I think that's another way for you to express some of those insight. So let's keep going with the main question. Kc, what does ownership mean to you? Couple sentences. Yeah, sure. To me it's like the ownership means it's a, it is a, a sense of personal responsibility and accountability for the success of the failure of the company. Definitely ownership have been a powerful motivator and has, it has impacted in the, in the way I work, and it has helped me to foster a positive work culture and drive the success of the company. This is what I feel about ownership. Nice. Well said. Thank you for sharing. Thank you. Coston, what about for you? What does ownership mean? Coston? Yeah, I mean, it is such a generous question. We could talk hours about this, but I mentioned something from a, from a different perspective. Uh, ownership helps me to remove one of my frustrations. I guess many people during their career think or dream about having their own company at one point in their life. It is that. What if, you know what, what if I stop now and open my own company and start creating value for me, for my family, or for my. Customers, you know, I'm not that different. Uh, I also think the same and I have such thoughts. But then what ownership at Hyper made me realize is this, most likely I will not be able to create more value for me and for the customers if I have my own company, that what I can achieve in a more mature, you know, better organized, better organized company where I can really leverage. Incredible amount of know-how experience, technology, everything we have at hyper diversity. Yes, I can imagine it's more difficult for most of us to quantify and to realize that entire value we added when we work for an Esso company than to your own company. But that value is there and is big. It's huge. So I, I truly believe that my impact in this world, it's multiplied even if, you know, even if I'm one of the many owners, but of a well-structured and developed company. That's great. Thanks all of you for, for your insights. So I wanna go with kind of the lone wolf question. So you don't get a lot of physical proximity. You don't get to have meetings in person too often with your. Team, let alone your manufacturing coworkers and others. Can you share a little insight on what your experience is? What would you want folks back at the manufacturing sites to know about your experience as, as our lone wolf out there in the the many countries? Tim, if you could start us with that. What are a couple insights? What does it feel like? You know, with my previous position, as I'd mentioned earlier, United, I, I, I covered quite a vast area and I operated out of, obviously South Africa and at my o in the Middle East. So I would've to go back sort of once a quarter, maybe, sometimes even two, three times a quarter. So it, it was, it was a quite a smooth transition for me in that way. I think ownership and being an owner makes things very different. I'll give you an example. I get a kick out of it often. Like I'll go to like. Some places where you, where you think, wow, you know, I, I'm taking Hypotherm, the brand where it's perhaps we are busy with an expansion in an area we, we, we perhaps haven't been in before. And then I think of the people that have put love and passion into the manufacturing side in New Hampshire. I'm going, wow. Well, you know, I might be so far away from them, but I'm taking that article that they, they made with so much dedication as a fellow owner and I'm actually going out there to promote it so, I make it really personal, Jesse, you know, for me it, it, it's like this isn't just a product, it's somebody, a co-owner of mine that, that put a lot of passion into it. And, and I take that forward almost to say, well, I have the privilege. They don't have the privilege to see where the product goes to. So I, I try and. almost put myself in their shoes and say, well, but, but if you could see what I would see. So I dunno if I'm making any sense, but, you know, I, I sort of had that sort of mindset. Right. And then I think for me, you know, it comes back to where you, you re you back the people in your organization. Yeah. And, and you feel like you, you part of the same team in that what pulls us together is ownership, you know, and I think. You know, it allows you to, you know, we've had challenges. 2022 was, was a year of enormous challenges and, and I think what you find being a lone wolf and Mira remote is, yeah, you might be on your own, but you know, you've got this. Global team of owners behind you that makes the brand what it is today, which is one of the leading brands in the industrial sector in the world. I mean, it just, you look at our numbers and our market share, so you take that forward in your work. So it it, it takes away a little bit of the, the lone wolf feeling where's, if I can relate to my previous job, it was like, it does get really lonely and I've found working for an ESOP that I don't feel as lonely. because of those very reasons that I've just alluded to, you know? That's great. Thank you for that, Tim kc, the, the lone wolf question, how does it feel to be the face of almost 2000 of us and, and what's your experience? So you can share some insights on Yes. How does, what does it feel when you are. Out turn the road working remotely. Yeah, it's, it's, it's a challenging thing as such, somebody working remotely can sometimes lead to feeling of isolation and disconnection from the company, but the ownership in us, in me has. Help to mitigate those feelings. By having a stake on the company's success and being invested in this outcome, I feel a greater sense of motivation and engagement in my work. I also felt a sense of, uh, purpose and fulfillment in knowing that my contributions are helping to drive the success of the company. However, owner. We can also bring its own set of challenges when working remotely. For example, uh, ones may struggle to stay informed about the company's progress or feeling disconnected from the important decisions, uh, they're be, that are being made. They, they may also face difficulties in collaborating with the coworkers or communicating effectively with other stakeholders. But overall, working remotely can bring in, bring in both positive and negative experience to the owners, but ultimately it depends upon the individual and the company culture. So that's what my, uh, thought. Thank you. Casey Coston, what are your adding thoughts on that? Yeah, so I fully resonate with team and Casey, uh, and know I could only give a different. Spin off of all this and you are spot on, jc this is how I felt as a Ds, as a dsm mainly. I remember a long Wolff, you know, having only sporadic interaction with other hyper associate. I used to ask myself what kind of owner I am if I'm not there in the, in the middle of the action. You know, where is the, the company Yeah. On the other end. When the other hand we, we, uh, on the other hand, we need to admit we had our share of social interaction. We know with partners, with customers. So we are not that alone. I. We have that privilege as well. But then all this, to be honest for me, was solved recently. One of the positive things of. Unfortunate pandemic was that the online interactions skyrocketed, you know, so suddenly everyone was equal to us, remote people. So sitting all in front of a camera and having the same chance for interaction and, you know, and contribution. Mm-hmm. So even, even for us initially was overwhelming for, for the remote people. Now I don't have that feeling that I'm disconnected anymore on the rest of the organization. You know, we. Regular meetings, and I, I know it's not the same like face to face, but still it's a big step ahead for us being more present in the life of the company after all. That's, that's great. That's great. And if I can share some insight, if you haven't heard this from others, what, what's, what I observed doing learning and development is that things have almost flipped. So with teams, there's. This vibrant Hy Hypertherm community and culture with a much more equity because of our adoption and success with Microsoft teams. But what has happened on the other side for operations that we're working on assertively, is that if they're at a machine all day, they don't use teams. And so what we're, what what? I ran exploring leadership yesterday, and we had Brazil, uk, Western United States, and a bunch of people in the Romans we're playing around with everybody's on teams, but some can sit together because they. they're there. But instead of you, you know, sitting in Buret just seeing a big blank room with a bunch of little heads in it, it's, everyone's got a one-on-one technology. And so it's interesting because now we're kind of, we didn't have the right tools that felt right until teams really was a game changer for us, which has been awesome. But now we're trying to get our operations folks to have tablets and have one-on-one tech so that they can connect with you. So it's an exciting time to see how one change in technology can build. More sense of a community, but it's wonderful to hear that, that that's your experience. So I want to do a quick for our listeners to give some global context. So an ESOP is a US tax structure. So when es, when employee-owned companies start to have. Employees, associates outside of the us, they can't directly be involved in an esop. It's unique to the us so our Canada and beyond, where we have, I don't know, I think we have 300 people sprinkled around the world. So for KC Coston and Tim, they're part of our global stock value program. And for little insight, we have helped other ESOPs develop this because owner. Was started at 30% of the company. Employee ownership was started, associate ownership was started by Dick and Barbara Couch, the company founders, and three years later they were able to implement the global Stock Value program. And so other ESOPs have come to Hypertherm and our plan administrators and finance for helping advice to say, okay, we've got global folks and we wanna include them equally. But I just wanted to give a shout out that for. International Associates ownership is, they've been active since 2004. And the key thing is that, which is my understanding and ESOP community is somewhat unique, is that a global stock value unit is the same exact value as an ESOP share. And so that's leading me the insight for the listeners, but also leading all of you to the next question. You are. Working in many countries that have not heard of, had discussions over the years, and they've never heard of employee ownership. So really curious. And we'll start with with Coston. We'll start off when, how do you talk about ownership with customers or partners when it might be a completely. unheard of concept in, in that country, that area. Love to hear that. So we can hear that sort of the lone wolf voice and teacher, you're all teachers as well. What are your thoughts, Coten? Yeah, like I started, I said, you know, it was also the first time for me to, to hear about this, but I take every, every opportunity to, to speak with partners, with customers about this. My relation with some of the distributors and in Europe, many of them, these are long. Term family businesses, usually medium size, you know, 20, 30, 40 people. So the relation with them was in such a way that we should discuss also outside of the usual hyper term topics. You know, often we will discuss about, I don't know, family implications, business development, ownership status. So therefore, I often use. Our ESOP example to open also their perspective and even to challenge them thinking about the future and their success of the succession planning. You know, and most of the reaction, honestly, very positive. And like you said, only the lack of similar local legislation was in usa. Maybe stop them to progress with the, with the idea. However, when it is about the end users that I'm, you know, responsible Now, because these are very large corporations, I mainly bring this topic in discussions. Let's say when, when I do, let's say, introductory presentations about hyper term, briefly explaining how we work, how we function, because I don't have any. Hope to change a corporation, you know, their structure. I mean, and just sharing about the, the how we work, how we function, let's say. But again, in the distribution, the dynamic was a bit different. I was even trying to impact and influence them a bit. That's great. I appreciate it. Yeah. Just curious for the insight, cuz you, you might be the one who is, you know, not only representing our brand, but you're in a way not to put any pressure on the three of you. You might be also representing the, the global employee ownership. Movement, which is growing cuz you might be the first one to bring it up. So, so Tim, what about for you? What, what, how do you, how do you tackle this one? Yeah, it's, it's, it's interesting listening. I mean, I, I'm, I'm obviously being very proud and one's gotta come across. In the right way. But I often explain to, to my customers and, and obviously to our channel, our channel partners that make it all possible and are really a part, such a deep part of our business. You know, I, I make them understand that I'm an owner, you know, I'm not an employee. And that, that translates to something where, you know, the relationship goes a lot deeper. You're talking to someone that has a, a real. Concern, care and concern, well, concerns perhaps the wrong word, but you have a, a, a vested interest in, in, in, in your company. And as such, you want both your partners and customers to, to gently enjoy the hypothermic experience. Not only just the products, but but what we bring with our products, which is, which is the people. Because with that passion and, and, and that commitment and, and, and. Just the pride that gets translated into our product. So it's almost like, well, here's the cake. I made it, what do you guys think? You know, please enjoy the cake. You know, and that's really, really important to me. And I think if I look at where, you know, I'm, I'm fairly advanced in my career, so seeing a lot go ahead of me and in front of me, and I, I want to, for me, I. our customers and our end users to know that I really value the relationship as an owner and, and the hypotherm ESOP model allows me to do that. And, and I think from that, your, especially your channel partners, they become your friends in many ways because, because it's so personal. Yep. That's great. That's great. Casey, do you wanna add to this? Yeah, I can have a few points. I take an immense pride in explaining to my partners and customers that I am one of the owner of one of the most reputed plasma cup company in the world. And it always like, feel proud and, uh, joy in explaining to them that what Watership means to me. And this has definitely helped to build. And, uh, reinforced my commitment in delivering good services and exceptional services and value to the customers and the partners. I also like, as a owner, I also feel like to get a feedback from the customers and partners so that I saw that I value the customers and the partners feedback and are open to suggestions to wa for waste, uh, to continuously improve my work. So this has, as a owner, has helped me and to the partners and the customers. It has built a relationship and trusting me. That's great. Thank you to the three of you. So I, I've got one more question for you and then I wanna just give you a moment to share why somebody should join you at Hypertherm. So I'll explain those. What's so two more stops on this, on this conversation before we wrap up. So, KC, maybe you could start us off if you today just. Brought ownership to three words. What three words would you choose to describe ownership? Yeah. In my opinion, like the, the, the three key words how to describe a ownership is like responsibility, the commitment and empowerment. So definitely as a owner, it adds more responsibility, it needs more commitment. And being a owner, it empowers you. So these are the three, to me, responsibility, commitment, and empower. That's great. Thank you. Tim, do you wanna follow that up? What are three words from South Africa? So very clear. First of all, it's a real blessing, proud responsibility. Nice. Thank you. Coston. Yes. And meaningful. Your work has a meaning, you know, belonging. And profit. Nice, nice. Yeah. It's an interesting, in, in many conversations of, of ownership where what I've settled on from learning, from talking to so many people is that we should absolutely acknowledge the financial. Potential, the wealth building potential, but then when hearing in your voice, it really is the daily experience and optimism for tomorrow. So it's an interesting one cuz when you look at a global stock value or esop, it's really a retirement vehicle. That's all it is. So why are people so passionate? If it feels good to come to work, you feel cared about, you look forward to being working hard and getting through challenges with people that you enjoy. You can laugh hard in challenging moments. I think that's sort of the, the daily experience. I think you've all shared that with great warmth and insight for our listeners. So the tradition in the effort to amplify owner. I ask all eops, including my own as the last question in our podcast. Why should somebody looking for a new role? Join Hypotherm. You're all owners, so you need to help the talent acquisition team. Why should somebody join Hypotherm? Join you? I'll start with Costin and we'll go around from there. This is your chance to plug working at Hypotherm and help our fearless talent acquisition leader, Carolyn Stone and her team. The floor is yours, Coston. Okay. Well, you, you, you should consider an ESOP company. I mean, if you want to have the skin in the game, if you really want to directly benefit from the success of the company you work and will also help to develop entrepreneurial skills, you know, and that will help you in the career. No matter if you'll stay with an ESOP company or it, it'll help you a lot. On top of that, in an ES subcompany, you'll see more often empathic behaviors, you know, and respect for the individuals that, that's my feeling. And I, I believe I'm not wrong. I mean, there are so many things to say. And another big difference is that when you compare, is that you really have that long-term vision here, the, you know, you could work for a regular stock, a public company, and you could buy shares in that company. But that's a big difference because that involves a money transaction. You know, a call transaction that you do. The ease of systems force you to stay from away from that transaction trading mentality and to adopt more if you are on the warren and buffer long term philosophy. So, uh, it, it's really changed your change, your mindset and however, one, one last piece of advice, let's not forget also to, to be grateful. to don't take this ownership for granted. I mean, yes, it's part of the package when you will start as a new, uh, associate, but let's not forget that many, many people in our, in hyper 10 cases, thousands of people, especially the initial owners, you know, couch family, they all created that value in the past, you know, years or decades that Valley is shared today with you. So we need to remind this, you know, from time to time that we need to be grateful about that. Yeah, that's great. That's great. Yeah. Let's, let's do our best work today and be mindful of each other's tomorrow for sure. Kc, why should somebody join you at Hypertherm? Yeah, but to add on to what Costin said, like Hypertherm Associates, like provides a great opportunity for employees to grow and advance in their careers and it's, it has a great company culture. Positive and supportive company culture can be important for an employee who, or, or, or want to feel valued and engaged in their work and whatnot. Like we also have hyper them prioritize the work-life balance. and offers a flexible work arrangements. And to add on to this, like they have a comprehensive benefit such as like ESOPs, profit sharing, health insurance, retirement plans, and paid time off, whatnot. So this is one thing. And other thing is like Hypothe is also like, is focused on making a, a positive impact in the industry and the community, hypothetical values, ethics and environments over the business. So these, these are some of the great features of a great company and they also provide. Innovative work environment, invest in cutting edge technologies and processes they can provide employees with an opportunity to work on an exciting and challenging project projects. Also, hypotherm encourages collaboration and teamwork. This can be a great oppo option for those. Who enjoy working with different people and cultures and value the benefits of diverse, uh, perspective overall, uh, Hypotherm, uh, is a great company to work for and definitely people will love to work here and this is the reason, uh, I would recommend somebody to join Hypothe Associates. That's great. Thank you Casey. Tim, you wanna finish us up? Why should somebody join you as a coworker somewhere in the world at Hypotherm Associate? Well, I've got such two great associates on this group that, you know, it's actually very little to ad because they, they were very eloquent and explaining hypothe them. But you know, I, if I was talking and looking at them, I would say, well, first of all, if you can see me through the screen, I look really happy, don't I? So that's gotta be something to do with organization, but I think, you know, the, the, the opportunity that is presented to you and we mustn't forget that you come into an organization, and I'll get to that a little bit about, about what the organization stands for, but you have a founder. In, in Dick couch where that, that, that produced something special with a bit of help from his lecturer and, and then a little bit more help, the two of them did something really special. And then you come into this organization, you haven't invested ascent yet. The organization says, well, we'll bring you in. And we'll give you stock shares in the organization and allow you to, to grow financially, which, you know, that's not the driving force, but I'll come back to you Originally, what I'd said before, you know, you are true. You truly valued not only as a, you know, the, the punchline of an employee and so on, but you truly, truly valued for who you are because. You're effectively joining what is an amazing company with amazing brands. I mean, just mention the word hypotherm in the plasma sector or even in the industrial sector. And many will say What a fantastic product. And I think what's added to that is fantastic people and, and I think Thema is as an organization. it's got a deep-rooted culture to make this world a better place. And I know that sometimes sounds, what we call it on this side a a little bit too soft. I I, I don't want to be disrespectful in the same, but, but I think, you know, so Yeah, yeah, yeah. Rah, rah, rah. But I mean, It, it, it truly is, you know, I think back of our founder and, and, and his vision and, you know, getting to this essop a hundred percent associate owned company. I mean, it, it's unique in the world. It's unique in the world of, of business and yeah, it's just. It's the best organization to work for and in a coming from me, it's somebody been in the industry for many, many years. So that's hopefully what I would convince the person to join. What is an amazing company? Yeah. That's great. That's great. I appreciate the time in your afternoons and evenings, my early morning in New Hampshire to peace of open and, and share your, your personal experiences and insights, but also talk about our shared company, Hypotherm Associates. So, uh, that brings our conversation to close from the Owner to Owner podcast. Again, I'm Jesse Tyler doing this for the EO Podcast Network to bring more voices of ownership out and hopefully have people who are thinking of selling their companies to their employees here, the voice of their own employees in in KC Coast, Coston and Tim, during this conversation, and I'd like to close with whenever possible, Please buy employee-owned eat, employee-owned, and work employee-owned. Thank you very much to the three of you for your time. Really appreciate it. We'd love to hear from you. You can find us on Facebook at EO Podcast Network and on Twitter at ESOP podcast. This podcast has been produced by Brett Kesling for the EO Podcast Network. Original music composed by Max Kesling, branding and Marketing by Bitsy Plus Design. And I'm Bitsy mcc.
