July
29 – Lawn and Landscape -- Last July,
Exmark Manufacturing announced Judy Altmaier as its vice president and general
manager. She replaced Rick Olson, who took over as vice president of
international business for Exmark’s parent, Toro. After decades of running
global operations for Eaton Corp., and a four-year stint at Big Red in
Minnesota as vice president of operations, she moved down to Nebraska and into
the top spot at Exmark.
We
caught up with Atlmaier to discuss what she’s learned in the last 12 months in
the GM’s seat, where she sees the mower market moving and why the company has
to make so many different kinds of equipment. – Chuck Bowen
Lawn
and Landscape: Tell me about your first year in this position. What surprised
you the most in the past 12 months?
Judy
Altmaier: First of all, I can’t believe it’s been a year already. In my mind
and when I talk to people I think, “Ok well I’ve been here about five months.”
That’s how much time it feels like. Time has flown because I’m having a great
time doing this. I guess what I was surprised with was how much I really truly
loved this. This is really a great job and a great division and good product. I
knew particularly that the people here are very proud of what they do. But I
was surprised at the absolute depth of passion that the entire team has here.
LAWN
and LANDSCAPE: Tell me about that decision to put up your hand and say, ‘I want
to go head up Exmark.’
Judy
Altmaier: Every job happens because there was an opening. When Rick Olsen
returned to the headquarters to run the international division, it left an open
position. It wasn’t on my list of things to do, but I started thinking about
what it would be like to be involved with this business at such an intimate
level. From an operations standpoint, I loved what I was doing, but I thought,
you know, the time was right for me personally and professionally to jump into
Exmark.
LAWN
and LANDSCAPE: What have you learned since you joined Exmark?
Well
I can tell you it’s a very different look when you’re trying to drive
initiatives from an operational standpoint. When you get into a division all of
a sudden things become clear. Like, “Oh, now I understand why there have to be
all these different products.” I used to joke with the divisions when I was in
operations that if I ran marketing as an operations person, we’d have one product,
we’d make a lot of them and they’d all be very, very good. That’s how an
operations person thinks: You’ve gotta have standardization, communization of
parts, everything should look the same. You make a lot of them and it’s gonna
be great.
LAWN
and LANDSCAPE: When you and I sat down at GIE+EXPO last October, we talked a
little bit about what you had planned for Exmark. You said Exmark is already a
really well-run company. So when you get up in the morning, what’s at the very
top of your to-do list?
I
always am wondering if we’re looking out for what our competitors are doing,
not that you’d want to build your business model based on what your competitors
are doing, but you don’t want anything to sneak up on you that you aren’t
expecting – some technology or something that’s way cooler than something we
have. I don’t know if that’s a high risk but you’ve gotta think about it.
So
we spend a lot of time looking at other peoples’ products to just check out
their quality and their technology. But then we spend a tremendous amount of
time thinking about growing, what will we look like 10 years from now, and how
do we have to be prepared? It’s not just about product then. You have a bigger
company and bigger division then you need to think about all the things you
need to support it. Do you have the right systems? Do we have the right depth
strength? Those are the things that I spend a lot of my thinking time on. And
is the customer going to value something, ultimately, that is different than
what they value now?
LAWN
and LANDSCAPE: Can you give me a look into the future and where you see Exmark
moving and what contractors might expect?
Probably
not in the way that you would like me to, frankly. I would say we’ll continue
to focus on technology and operator comfort, and way to help our commercial
cutters be more productive and fuel efficient. And one more thing is some green
technology, I know you just spoke with Gary Busboom at length about propane,
you know all those things are very near and dear and we continue to work on
every single day.
Steve
Jobs said about the iPhone, people don’t know what they want until they see it.
It’s probably the same with mowers. People didn’t know they needed this until
we brought it out and said look how cool this is, look how much this is going
to help, look how much this is going to save you. So we also need to make sure
we’re not getting caught up in the coolness of it. Ultimately that’s not valued
by the customers and a waste of time and energy on probably the wrong area, and
it’s a delicate balance.
LAWN
and LANDSCAPE: So, tell me, I’m interested to hear your opinion about Jacobson
acquiring Dixie Chopper. What did you think about that when you heard about
that?
I
thought it was surprising. I thought it was just an interesting move. You might
be surprised to know that they didn’t call me to ask my opinion before they did
it, so I wasn’t involved in that decision. I thought it was an interesting time
for them to jump in. I don’t know if their revenues are down or they’re losing
market share in their other business, so maybe that’s why this is interesting
to them. But I think with this one, time will tell. I don’t know what they plan
to do with it.
LAWN
and LANDSCAPE: VallleyCrest is a Toro account and Brickman is an Exmark
account. What does the KKR deal mean for you at Exmark?
I
don’t know that we can predict what it will mean. I think we have to focus – it
doesn’t really do me any good to spend time worrying about that. I think what I
need to spend time on is focusing on being the supplier to Brickman, to
ValleyCrest, to new customers. Provide the products that they want to use and
can count on, be reliable every single day. We have to continue to bring value
to those very important customers – all of them, the big ones and the small
ones. And then I think the details will work themselves out.
LAWN
and LANDSCAPE: You’ve got a really Zen approach to things.
I
don’t know if I have Zen, but I do have a philosophy that you’ve got to
understand what’s in your circle of control. There are a lot of things in my
circle of concern, but there are only a few things in my circle of control. So
I might as well spend my time and energy on those things I can impact and
manage and that I can be responsible for. Everything else is very important,
but if I focus on the things that matter, that’s the right formula. Time will
tell if that’s true, too.
LAWN
and LANDSCAPE: I know a lot of people, if one of their largest customers
acquired their next largest customer, they’d be freaking out. And we’ve had
that happen in our business. It can be a bit startling and surprising. It makes
the sales guys worry too.
Yeah
I’m not really a freak-out kind of person.
LAWN
and LANDSCAPE: I can tell.
If
you ever see me freaking out, it’s big.
LAWN
and LANDSCAPE: That’s when I should hide.
Well
yeah, I don’t even know what I would do if I was freaking out. At the end of
the day, whether I freak out, or have a meltdown, or throw a temper tantrum, at
the end of the day I don’t get much control of what they do. So all I can do is
make sure that we don’t lose focus. As long as I continue to wait, I wait as
Exmark continues to bring things that our customers want, like EFI technology
that gives them tremendous fuel savings, or we listen to them for what they
need on their machines for better productivity. As long as we’re doing that and
delivering that, I have to think that that’s the right approach. If we just
start developing products and throwing them at them and saying, “here use
this,” instead of asking them what they need, that would be an operation of our
fundamental approach and I don’t think we’re gonna move from what we did well,
which is listening to our customers.
LAWN
and LANDSCAPE: Can you share anything about what you’re doing for GIE+EXPO this
year?
Well
I don’t know that I’m going to be terribly helpful. My quick answer is if
people know what to expect, why would they show up?
LAWN
and LANDSCAPE: You’ve got to give me something to write about Judy!
I
know. I’m sorry. You can say we’re going to have some really cool stuff. We’re
going to bring all of our latest and newest, and a couple of things that no one
has seen yet. It’ll be fun, and beyond that I won’t tell you anymore.
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