Chris Lesner
Jason, thank you for joining us today.

Jason Andringa
It's a pleasure.

Chris Lesner
Looking at Vermeer and looking at everything that you guys do, there's gotta be a cool story behind this. And I know there's a generational story behind this. Can you share with our audience a little bit about Vermeer?

Jason Andringa
It is a great story. I'm very proud of it. 76 years ago, my grandfather had built a mechanical wagon hoist for his own use on his farm. And it was simply to take labor out of the process of emptying grain from a wagon. And my grandfather built a pulley based mechanical wagon hoist system.
and his neighbor saw it and said, hey, would you build one of those for me? And pretty soon my grandfather needed to hire somebody to build these machines for him. And that was the start of the company. I often like to say, you know, it wasn't a business plan competition in some sort of MBA class. My grandfather just built a machine for his own use and his neighbors saw it and thought it was useful.
asked him to build one for them and pretty soon he had enough demand to hire somebody and the start of the company was just that simple. And my grandfather is a naturally brilliant engineer and hydraulic wagon hoist almost immediately rendered mechanical wagon hoist obsolete. And my grandfather moved on to new products almost immediately. So
Really Vermeer entire history can be traced back to power takeoff driven drainage tile trenchers to put in a drainage tile for farm fields. And it can be traced back to the invention of the stump cutter, which Vermeer is credited with. And then also the invention of the round hay baler, which my grandfather is credited with. So those three market opportunities
explained the entire business that Vermeer is today. And we continue to be 100 % owned by the descendants of my grandfather and his brother. And my mother was my immediate predecessor in the role of CEO. So I'm incredibly proud to provide third generation leadership to this company that my grandfather founded and that

Jason Andringa
You know, my mother also served as the CEO before me in this company. So yeah, very, very proud 76 years and counting. And, um, I'm, I'm just as optimistic or more for the future of Ramir as I am proud of our past.

Chris Lesner
Wow. mean, Vermeer has become a household name, obviously, over those 76 years. I think you see Vermeer all over when you're driving through America. And now it's international. I mean, it's really, really grown internationally, hasn't it?

Jason Andringa
Yeah. Yeah.

Jason Andringa
True. Vermeer is a Dutch name. That's my grandfather's last name. Literally nearly 60 years ago, my grandfather wanted to start expanding internationally. The Netherlands was the obvious opportunity. We've had a footprint overseas for somewhere between 50 and 60 years.
most of the countries in the world now. We have regional offices around the world. have international dealerships around the world. We manufacture in the Netherlands. We manufacture in China. so yeah, we're a global company and I'm very proud of that as well.

Chris Lesner
Well, and from your standpoint, you grew up knowing about the company. Did you think you would be in the company from an early age? Or at what point did you decide this was the route you wanted to take?

Jason Andringa
I did. I always assumed growing up that I would eventually come back to work for Vermeer. My mother and my uncle very wisely implemented a family employment policy when I was in high school. so myself and my sister and my cousins, we knew the expectation that we would work outside the company for a period of time before coming into the company. I majored in mechanical engineering as an undergrad and
started thinking about what would I want to do with a mechanical engineering degree. And for a period of time, I was infatuated with aerospace and still very interested in aerospace. So I co -opted Johnson Space Center. I went to MIT for a master's degree in aerospace engineering and worked for the Jet Propulsion Laboratory for four years. While I was at JPL, I got an MBA at USC. through all of that, I thoroughly enjoyed.
you know, my career before Vermeer, but through all of that, I continued to feel like Vermeer is where I ultimately wanted to end up. And so in 2005, I came to work for Vermeer and served in five different roles at Vermeer before becoming the CEO nine years ago. So I've been at Vermeer for 19 years now. It's as hard as that is to believe, but I couldn't be happier with my decision.
to make my career at Vermeer.

Chris Lesner
It's interesting that now you're in the third generation of the business, right? Most businesses don't last past the second generation. They definitely don't last past the third generation, they say. How do you see that actually play out?

Jason Andringa
Yeah.

Jason Andringa
We spend a lot of time thinking of it. My fellow G3 Vermeer shareholders, which are the descendants of my grandfather and his brother. my grandfather, I think altogether there's 17 of us, I believe. And with spouses approximately double that number. We are committed to...
not succumbing to that statistic. are committed to, we're now a 76 year old company. We regularly talk about wanting to become a Century Club company. We want to be family held by the descendants of my grandfather and his brother for a hundred plus years. Once we get to that Century Club mark, then we will simply aspire to keep going.
But for now, that's kind of the flag we've planted as third generation family members. If we get to that 100 year mark, which we fully anticipate doing and aspire to do, then frankly, it'll be in the G4's hands, whether we make it the next 25 years.

Chris Lesner
Wow, I think a lot of people are thinking about starting businesses or they run great organizations already and they'll listen to this and wonder, is it better to keep a generational business in the family? Is it better to start something, grow it and sell it? And there's so many different options. How do you decide what's the right option as people who are listening?

Jason Andringa
Yes.

Jason Andringa
Great, great question. So my friend and fellow family business owner from this same little small town of Pella, Iowa, Pella Corporation, which make windows, you know, many people are familiar with the Pella Corporation brand. You know, my counterpart, who is the chair of the board for Pella Corp, were essentially exactly the same age.
I've heard him say, which of course he got from somewhere else as well, but heard him say, once you know one family held business, you know one family held business. So the point is, there are best practices, there are some things to try to do, there are some things to try to avoid, but there is no one size fits all type.
recommendation for family businesses. Family businesses need to think through their own history, their own family members, their own culture, and the opportunities and challenges in front of their own business and determine whether continuing to hold the company within the family is the best choice or to sell or to go ESOP.
So there's all kinds of options for Vermeer and the Vermeer family. Continuing to hold the business up till now has been the right choice. And myself and my fellow G3 family members feel strongly that for as far as we can see into the future, that continues to be the right choice.

Chris Lesner
I love that. On this podcast, we talk a lot about servant leadership. And I know with a team the size of Vermeer's team and a global team, it gets hard to find great leaders and then to build into great leaders. What are your thoughts on the concept of servant leadership when you hear that? And how do you see it play out at Vermeer?

Jason Andringa
Yeah.

Jason Andringa
I'm a massive, massive advocate of servant leadership. I've used those two words thousands of times in my career at Vermeer. So at Vermeer, we consider our timeless values, what we call our four Ps. And when we show those graphically at the center, we show principles. And when I describe principles, I describe that as being the golden rule, treating other people like you want to be treated yourself.
And to me, that is kind of the fundamental definition of servant leadership. If you interact with your peers in your workplace, with the people that report up through you, with your dealers, with your customers, with your fellow colleagues, if you interact with them in a way that you would want to be treated yourself,

Jason Andringa
everything goes so much better. You know, I also will say that for Vermeer's central value of principles, I will openly say those are, you know, biblical Christian values. But, you know, we have 4500 team members around the world. You know, even even though for me and my family, those are biblical principles. The golden rule is even more universal.
and living my life and working in a way that is centered on biblical values. just hope that it's an example for others and I hope it's inspirational for others and I hope people see a difference.
in a person who wants to lead a business in that regard.

Chris Lesner
That's awesome. I wonder if when people look at you and look at your other family members who are in the business, they think, gosh, they've had it so easy. It was just handed to them, which I know you put in so much work. Talk about some of the challenges you've faced over the years, especially 19 years in and nine years as CEO. It hasn't been easy, has it?

Jason Andringa
No, no, it hasn't. You know, obviously, I feel very blessed to have been able to, you know, risen up through the roles at Vermeer and become the CEO of Vermeer. I feel very blessed that I've had that opportunity because this is a company my grandfather founded and, my mother was my immediate predecessor in the role. But I feel very

Jason Andringa
confident that I've worked hard to earn it and and I'm proud to have worked hard and I'm proud that you know, my uncle and my mom when they were in leadership as second -generation Family leaders that they put in a family employment policy to work outside the business first and and to prove to yourself and to prove to You know your future colleagues that that
you were a competent employee of another organization before coming to work for Vermeer. But in my 19 years, for sure, different challenges along the way. The greatest single challenge that I have faced in my 19 years at Vermeer about
Six years ago, we were hit by a very powerful tornado. We lost multiple buildings, more than 400 ,000 square feet of space. There were 400 personal vehicles that were destroyed. And the blessing, what is called locally, the miracle on the mile, because Vermeer extends for a mile along this road.
So it's called the miracle on the mile or the vermiracle. But we had no serious physical injuries and no fatalities, which is really remarkable. And it's a testament to this organization that we were prepared for that and that we executed like we should to keep our people safe and
Once I knew that all of our people were accounted for and that there were no more than minor injuries. So it was about six hours after the tornado hit us that evening. I was able to say that, you know, all of our people are safe. And even though we have sustained massive damage, but we have all of our people. And if we have all of our people, that means we have everything that we need to rebuild better and stronger than ever before.

Jason Andringa
And you know that that was the beginning of the comeback and and the comeback took months and to be to be fully rebuilt the comeback took a couple years, but you know it really started when we knew all of our people were safe and accounted for and you can replace buildings you can replace vehicles.
When you have your team, you have everything you need to come back better and stronger than ever before. And that's exactly what we did.

Chris Lesner (15:34.680)
Wow, I remember in 2018 seeing this on national news. It made national news and there was a picture of the aftermath of a tornado that clearly went through one of your, I don't know if it was your largest building or one of your largest buildings right down the middle. What are the steps for crisis management in something like that? How do you deal with that and how did your team deal with that?

Jason Andringa
Yeah. Yeah.

Jason Andringa
Man, you know, in retrospect, so I was in a shelter in what we call corporate headquarters or plant one. And the tornado went right through our, our, our eco center, what, we call our eco center, which is, you know, where we do a variety of things like mixing paint and et cetera. So went right through there and then right through what we, what we called plants five and six.
And, um, you know, it had hit another, you know, it did damage to two other plants as well. Did damage to four and seven also, but, uh, five and six were completely destroyed. you know, I, I drove past plants five and six soon after the tornado and it was shocking. Um, and at that point, I, I feared that there were lots of injured people and.
probably lots of fatalities in those plants. And it wasn't until hours later that I was confident that that wasn't the case. I tell the story that I then not long after that drove past those 400 destroyed personal vehicles, 400 destroyed cars.
And at the time, it didn't even register in my brain because my brain was so saturated. My brain was so overwhelmed with the thought that there were serious injuries and fatalities. so it's almost like it was a just 100 % mental saturation to think about what the implications were for
human life first. And then, know, once once we knew that that we had all of our team members safe, then like that was the moment that the recovery could begin. And we got hit on a Thursday and on Friday we were officially closed. But, you know, all of our sort of key leaders for operations came in at seven o 'clock the next morning. And, you know, I stood in front of everyone and said, we have three goals for today.

Jason Andringa
Um, we are going to determine, determine what plants are undamaged and we can go back into production on Monday and get our team back to work in those plants that are undamaged. know, frankly, there was a lot of trepidation among our team members as to whether they had a job in the longterm. Um, you know, where they had worked was completely destroyed in many cases in hundreds of cases. Um, and so, you know, on that, on that Friday morning, I said, I want to figure out.
you know, what plans are undamaged and we can go back to work on Monday, what plants are damaged, but we can repair them and then bring those team members back. And then what plants are damaged beyond the ability to repair them and how can we take the products that we build in those plants and distribute them other places. And...
So that was on Friday and we actually accomplished all three of those things on Friday. And then on Monday, myself and our VP of HR and our VP of operations, had startup meetings with all of those team members that came back to work on Monday and just kind of set the stage for expectation. And then we went to numerous other locations in the little community of Pella and other surrounding communities.
And we communicated with our team members that we were going to have these meetings. And we shared with our team that our goal was to have everyone back to work within 45 days. And we actually accomplished it in 30 days. We actually had everyone back to work within 30 days. And we squeezed everything into the plants that we had. We had different areas in different plants where we would build prototype equipment.
And we ended up moving all of that work offsite to like a dozen other locations. Local area businesses and warehouses were just incredibly generous saying, hey, I've got some space for you if you have a team that you want to come over here and tell, you kind of get your feet under you again. And so we did that, we moved people offsite and then we were able to squeeze in.

Jason Andringa
the production from those two completely destroyed plants into the other five facilities. And until we built a big new replacement facility, we built one big facility where plants five and six used to be. Until that was completed about two years later, we were manufacturing in very tight, more constrained space than what we would want from an efficiency and safety perspective.
Just continue to say the message, you hey, we all made it through the tornado safely. We've got to continue to be very cognizant of, you know, the constrained spaces that we're in now, because if we have the legacy of being safe through the tornado, let's maintain that legacy until we can get back to, you know, kind of the scale that we need to build machines like we want to build them.

Chris Lesner
Wow. It's amazing to see how you've recovered. I think a lot of people come up against obstacles that seem just overwhelming and just get discouraged. mean, to be honest, seeing what I saw in the news back in back when that happened, it seemed overwhelming. Was there ever even a thought that crossed your mind of let's just stop or this is not going to work or we'll never get back to where we were?

Jason Andringa
Yeah, thank you.

Chris Lesner
knowing now on the other side you're stronger than ever.

Jason Andringa
Yeah, no, thank you for that question. And a year after the tornado, we released a documentary that we call the story of Ramir Strong. And you can just search for it on YouTube. It's on YouTube and watch it. It's about a 30 minute documentary. Since the tornado, I've frequently said if a picture is worth a thousand words, a video is worth 10 ,000 words. And to really wrap your brain around
the scale of the destruction and what we accomplished in the first year of recovery from the tornado. There's just nothing that can replace the pictures and the video that you see in that documentary. But, you know, I feel very fortunate and blessed once again that, you know, on the night when I announced, you know, we're going to come back better and stronger than ever before.
you know, without me even calling all the shareholders and saying, you know, hey, are we really committed to this? You know, without me calling all my board members and say, hey, are we really committed to this? I knew fundamentally that we were, you know, I know, I know the culture of the company and I know the culture of our board well enough that they agreed with me that if we have all of our people, we have everything we need.
to come back better and stronger than ever before. We actually had a very good experience with our insurer. Our insurer was there the next morning and was terrific to work with through the whole process. you know, honestly, I often said in that next, you know, that day by day, week by week, getting to that first month, which it took to get all of our people back to work.
Um, you know, for, all those months as we rebuilt and, you know, moved back into repaired facilities, moved into new facilities, et cetera. Um, you know, people would ask me that question, you know, at any point, did it feel overwhelming? And, know, honestly, once, once I knew we had no fatalities and no serious injuries, I never felt overwhelmed anymore. After that, I always felt as though, um,

Jason Andringa
we've got our people, we've got everything we need to accomplish this. And that is how it felt. At that point, we probably had 2 ,500 team members based in Pella. And I felt like I was one of 2 ,500 team members that were committed to this plan, committed to this plan to get back to work, to clean up.
to rebuild and to continue to serve our markets with the products that we manufacture. yeah, other than that, kind of that first few hours after the tornado hit, when it felt like my brain was saturated with how bad things maybe were from a perspective of loss of human life, once I was past that, it's kind of like, you hey,
I've got a motivated team, we're focused, we know what we have to do and it's just a matter of doing it person by person, day by day. so yeah, was, nothing in my career has ever matched and probably never will again match the feeling and the pride of having the entire Vermeer team aligned around that goal.
of coming back better and stronger than ever before.

Chris Lesner
Wow. How do you continue to develop, you know, through mentors, board members, family members? And what do you encourage people to do in terms of growing their own skill set, as you've gone through a lot and grown?

Jason Andringa
Yeah, great question. You know, everything you mentioned, so I'm very proud of the board that we have. have a, we are committed to what we call a plus one board. So we have at least one additional independent director in comparison to family director. So we've got five independent directors and four family members, one of which is me, and then three shareholder directors. And, you know, our board is incredibly
helpful and beneficial to Vermeer. I love learning. you not only am I quite an avid reader, I'm involved in a number of different associations that are affiliated with Vermeer and the markets that we serve. And then I've continued to take part in executive education. I've taken two classes at Chicago Book
booth, University of Chicago booth, I've taken one class at Northwestern, and I'm actually now two thirds of the way through a three course series at Harvard Business School called a certificate in management excellence. I, I, I definitely feel as though, you know, when I became CEO nine years ago,
I was only at the beginning. was, I was an unfinished product and I will always consider myself to be an unfinished product. I'll, I'll always consider myself as a person who can become a better leader, become a better strategic thinker. Um, and, and, know, can continue to learn and, um, yeah, I, it's, it's part of who I am fundamentally, but it's also.
part of what I would recommend to anybody.

Chris Lesner (28:17.240)
Wow. So I want to hit you with 10 rapid -fire questions, where you just say the first thing that comes to your mind and there's no right or wrong. Who's the first person you think of when I say servant leadership?

Jason Andringa
Okay.

Jason Andringa
Sounds good.

Jason Andringa
Hmm.
You know, I'd probably say George Washington. I think he, you know, I think he was an incredible example of someone who could have taken on more authority as the first president of the United States and more power and specifically said, no, this needs to be a limited role with terms. So yeah, that was a longer question than just one, but the first name that comes to mind is George Washington.

Chris Lesner
Five words that most describe yourself.

Jason Andringa
Strategic learner, long range, don't know if that counts for two or one. Ambitious.

Jason Andringa
Servant leader. Maybe that was six words total.

Chris Lesner
Love it.
Love it. Favorite author or book?

Jason Andringa
Frankly, I find reading Harvard Business Review probably more helpful than any particular business book. I read very broadly. I read a lot of magazines. I read both nonfiction and fiction. So yeah, I honestly I can't I can't pick just one author.

Chris Lesner
Okay, favorite movie.

Jason Andringa
Boy, should have a few of these more well -prepared. Something like Shawshank Redemption comes to mind.

Chris Lesner
What's your favorite thing to do in your free time?

Jason Andringa
It's now golf. his, know, historically it was more like bicycling, um, triathlons, things like that. I I've really come to enjoy the strategic mental aspects of golf.

Chris Lesner
surprising fact about you.

Jason Andringa
I've never thrown up. I've used that one a lot. It's actually a condition, but I've never gotten any sort of motion sickness and I'm incapable of throwing up, which most people find that to be very unusual.

Chris Lesner
Wow, favorite place you've been.

Jason Andringa
I'm gonna say Kiowa Island. My family really enjoys going to Kiowa Island, South Carolina.

Chris Lesner
where somewhere you wanna go that you have not been.

Jason Andringa
I've traveled to 90 countries. I've been to all 50 states.

Jason Andringa
There are probably places in Switzerland that would be really enjoyable to go. I love kind of the small Swiss villages up in the Alps. So, additional places in Switzerland that I've never been.

Chris Lesner
All right, and finally, best advice you've ever gotten.

Jason Andringa
Great question. I think the best advice for a family company that can be long term oriented is be focused on the long term. I will often say I care a lot more about what Vermeer looks like 10 years from now than one quarter from now. know making the monthly numbers is important making the quarterly numbers is important but
I would much rather come up short in the monthly numbers and the quarterly numbers if I feel like the decisions that we made set us up better for the long run.

Chris Lesner
Well, thank you so much for joining us, Jason. I'm excited for our audience to listen to you and learn more about Vermeer.

Jason Andringa
Thanks Chris, really a pleasure to be part of it. And yeah, think I was more verbose than I should have been in those 10 questions, but yeah, happy to be part of this.