Marc Reifenrath (00:12):
Welcome to Culture Starts with U. This is a podcast all about culture and core values. We feature guests that are in a leadership role that also care deeply about culture and core values. Today, we have a great guest: Marc Scantlin is with Kemin Industries. He's also in YPO and someone I've known for several years now. I'm excited to have him on today and share his background and also his views on culture and core values. So welcome, Marc Scantlin, it's great to have you and appreciate you taking some time out of your busy schedule.
Marc Scantlin (00:41):
Thank you, Marc. Thanks for having me
Reifenrath (00:43):
In his current role, Scantlin oversees all shelf, life flavor, color, and food safety solutions for the North America and Latin America food markets. Scantlin began his career at Kemin as Worldwide Director of Human Resources. He developed career ladders to provide all employees — ranging from entry level to executive — with a clear and objective path for future growth. Scantlin also designed and initiated an international selection system that reduced involuntary turnover prior to rejoining Kemin in his current role in 2015. Scantlin was president of Eurofins Microbiology Laboratories, Inc. Before that, as a United States Air Force captain, Scantlin served as section commander of the 30th Security Forces Squadron at Vandenburg Air Force Base in California and the Seventh Airborne Command Control Squadron at Offutt Air Force Base in Nebraska. He received his Bachelor's degree from Kansas State University and his Master's degree in managerial economics from the University of Oklahoma. Welcome, Marc Scantlin.
So we like to start things off here with a fun song. I like to ask the question: When you wake up in the morning — and right now a lot of us are walking to our desks — we're either working remote, or if you do drive with a commute and then you have your walk to the office, to your desk — what would be that walk up song or entrance song playing in your head every morning?
Scantlin (02:00):
I would say probably the song, Marc, that I use maybe not every morning, but you know, when you have those very important meetings or customer meetings, probably Eminem’s Lose Yourself that just kind of has that beat that gets everything going. And it addresses what happens when things go wrong, cause chances are things are gonna go wrong when you go into those meetings.
Reifenrath (02:23):
Right. I've actually heard that one. That's a great one.
Scantlin (02:27):
And then there's probably Sia’s Never Give Up, I like that one too. There's probably a couple of more that I can't say on the podcast…
Reifenrath (02:37):
There's some good ones. All right. So again, this is all about culture and core values. With that lens on it, social responsibility seems to be a big focus at Kemin. So how does that impact your company culture?
Scantlin (02:53):
From the very beginning stages when I started at Kemin, the culture was really reflected in the vision statement itself. When I started it was: We strive to improve the quality of life by touching half the world's population with our products and services. We achieved that a few years ago. We've now switched that vision to where we're now wanting to transform the quality of life by touching 80% of the world's population, and we're really wanting to do that by the year 2042, which is a ways out. If I look at the world's population that's, I don't know, close to 9 billion, but to your point of how that is defined in the culture… That's really the foundation of why we all get up in the morning at Kemin, why I get up at Kemin, and it really looks at just the words.
Scantlin (03:47):
If we're wanting to do this in a sustainable fashion, we've had a quantitative definition applied to that where we're looking at really five times that we influence a person's life — whether it's food that they, bacon and eggs in the morning,, sandwich at lunch, the pet food that that we provide, antioxidant solutions for the jeans that people wear. We're wanting to make sure that we do have a clear definition of what we are doing to really improve the quality of life around the world. So I think if you look at it, it's really at the foundation within that vision of Kemin. And when we recruit people, we're recruiting people to really reflect what they can do, specifically in that vision.
Reifenrath (04:36):
Awesome. I know from your background, Kemin actually requires a few things to be in the role that you are in. You can't just be nobody. I mean, you gotta have some biology background, there's some specific requirements that they have maybe dig into that. Cause I think that's an interesting part of the culture as well. You may meet the leadership qualities, but you also have these technical qualities that we're gonna require given what we do.
Scantlin (05:05):
Well, it's a good question from the standpoint that yes, we have an abundance of PhDs, whether it be in organic chemistry, microbiology, biochemistry — I think we count maybe a hundred of those PhDs within Kemin. And that's very important for providing those solutions that we're after. At the same time, we want people that really fit into the core values and the culture that we have within Kemin. For me personally, I don't have a formal chemistry or microbiology degree, That said, I've learned the science, and it's important that you can learn that science, but Kemin takes risks. They take risks more on people that are highly energetic. They wanna make a difference. They come to work really wanting to do the very best that they can. That's I think more important than having a technical degree or background. Again, it's important for us to have those in order to provide these solutions. At the same time, it's a blend and a balance of technical and non-technical, but more importantly, it's passionate energy and leadership that we have within the company.
Reifenrath (06:15):
So speaking to the risk aspect, earlier in 2021, Kemin acquired a food technology company called Proteus Industries. So how are you working… I know that Kemin has a rich history of lots of acquisitions and expansion. So how do you work on getting that unified culture and core values? Do they live on their own in some of these divisions? Or is it something that you're trying to work on, overall, to have a consistent culture across the board?
Scantlin (06:46):
Yeah, you're right. I think people that are gonna be listening to this know that no matter how great the target company is from a financial standpoint, synergies are not going to occur unless you have a good cultural fit with the company. Again, that's the biggest failure that we see in acquisitions. The fortunate thing with the company that you're referring to, Proteus, we did acquire them in April of 2021. That said, we had the opportunity to work with all of the employees of Proteus for about a year before — we had over a year of due diligence before we actually signed the papers to acquire the company in that we were able to see firsthand how those employees would be able to fit into the Kemin culture. And we were assessing that just as much as we were assessing the technology as to: Are they going to be a good fit to come into Kemin?
Scantlin (07:42):
And throughout that, it's easy to see when things are going well. How people react, maybe not so great as we had a lot of failures along the way when we were trying to get the technology to do what we wanted it to do, we had failures. And that was where I really looked at: How are they reacting to this? Do they lose their head and start blaming it on other people? Or do they own it? And they look at it as it's a stumbling block. Now, what are we going to do to move ahead. It's the ones that kind of get into a funk, in a down state, that really kind of get me wondering. Is it a good fit to come into this company? Because this company is a research based company. And just by the definition we are going to have many failures. It's more of how, then, do we learn from those failures and move forward to really get these solutions that we're after and that's what Kemin was based and founded upon.
Reifenrath (08:36):
Absolutely. You kind of touched on this earlier too, but a couple years ago, Kemin announced a big new philosophy and vision and goals around sustainability. Do you feel like this impacts your team members, does it make people proud and excited to work for your organization and have an impact on morale and workplace environment? And again, you kind of touched on this, but I think it's maybe a broader topic as well.
Scantlin (09:00):
Yeah, we, we did. I would say that was one of the better decisions that we made as a leadership team, as we moved into, how are we going to define sustainability within Kemin? We did not do that in a vacuum. We actually brought the teams together, diagonal slice within all of the company, both from a regional standpoint, as well as from a position standpoint and came up with: How are we going to look at that very popular term now, sustainability? And when we did it, we made some significant changes at Kemin. We looked at it from the view or the lenses of the business, the employees, as well as the planet and said, okay: How is Kemin going to be a part of those three lenses? Otherwise you're just all over the place with sustainability. So we really had to zero into those three areas.
Scantlin (09:56):
And when we looked at it from the people standpoint, it was really reaffirming what we had been doing all along with the people. And that is making sure we afford time, situations, opportunities for those employees to be able to give back to the community however they would like to, as well as programs of which Kemin is clearly involved with — for example, the World Food Program, which Kemin has been involved with for many, many years. And it's something that is very near and dear to our heart from the standpoint that we can absolutely see where the solutions that we do, particularly with — it's actually a date bar. We make date bars. We have a scientist that's dedicated to really make sure we can keep that product going in war torn areas.
Scantlin (10:50):
So if you look at where the World Food Program gets involved, it's whenever there is unrest around the world, they're the first ones in there to make sure that they can get nutrition into those that are in need, like refugees, for example. And so we can see that the products that we are helping create are going into those and employees can get involved with that as well as a host of number of different programs, both from a regional as well as from a worldwide standpoint. When we look at the business, we're really looking at ways in which we can partner and team up with our customers. At the end of the day, we have to be profitable. And so we want to create solutions that are not just profitable for Kemin, but are obviously mutually profitable for our customers as well.
Scantlin (11:37):
We have to make sure we have a healthy business from a bottom line standpoint in order for us to be sustainable. If we look at the planet, we look at ways of which we can improve and minimize the footprint that Kemin has, whether it be from solar technology. Kemin just completed a solar technology program here in Des Moines of which the headquarters, which I'm sitting in right now, is 100% powered by solar panels. That's one area in which we source our products and raw materials. The rosemary that we use, which we extract carnosic acid from that to be able to use for antioxidants, we are vertically integrated and in a sustainable growing of rosemary. We have, I don't know, around 1200 acres in Texas and New Mexico. And that rosemary is not something that is just decimated and then we leave the land and go to something else. We are able to continue to harvest that rosemary, which is something that had never been done before Kemin started that program. And there's a bunch of different examples that we use with that as well.
Reifenrath (12:44):
I want to go back to the date bars and war torn areas. A lot of newer people coming into the workforce — young, right outta college — they care deeply about making an impact on the world. And I actually think that's becoming more broadly —; I think we all do on some level. And so that's pretty powerful that you're doing something to help war torn countries, especially new food nutrition. So do you feel energy behind that when those topics are discussed, can you feel a change in the way that people react and the passion they pour into that project versus — maybe not that others aren't as important, but that's got a pretty big meaning behind it.
Scantlin (13:21):
It does. I think that the simple answer is yes. More so for some people. For other people, it may be, they want to reduce the amount of water usage that is going on, that encourages them more. When we look at those… We're in textiles, in the jeans that probably everybody on this call's wearing. We wanna find ways of which we don't use as much water as it used to take to be able to get the white washing of those jeans, cuz they were using stones. If you've ever heard of stone washed, that's what was being done. We found a way to do it with enzymes, which the enzymes we were using didn't start with textiles. We used them in completely different industries, for example, in tortillas. We can use those enzymes though to introduce into the textiles, to where you don't have to go through all of that water usage and the wasting of the water and the impact that that has on the environment. So for some people that's why they get up in the morning. In other words, we're not trying to be all things to all people. It's instead trying to find those people that at least have a passion for something that we're standing for. And that really gets 'em up in the morning.
Reifenrath (14:35):
Absolutely. That's awesome. So Kemin is a family business and I've always been impressed with — they're not just in first generation. So you mentioned Chris earlier, he's third or fourth generation. If I remember correctly…
Scantlin (14:50):
He's second generation.
Reifenrath (14:51):
Second generation, but they've planned out to how fa?
Scantlin (14:55):
Currently we have another five generations that they're set up to be able to continue to pass that along, the companies. I think it's important to say RW and Mary, they are the founders of Kemin, and now we have the second generation, which is both Chris, as well as Libby Nelson, who is his sister. Both of them are representing the second generation for Kemin. And we already have third generation kids that are involved in the company, at all levels within Kemin. And there's regular times that we have other members of the family that are brought into Kemin that we start really trying to involve them at a very early age as to what Kemin is doing — again, seeing if they have that same passion to want to join the company. It's not easy for the family members to come to Kemin. They have to have at least worked in a different company for a period of two to three years, they have to show that they were promoted in that environment. So it wasn't something that they just went in and did their time and then come to Kemin. It's not easy for the family members to come into to Kemin — it's not something they're just given.
Reifenrath (16:10):
Right. Which I would imagine would impact the culture because you respect that person much more than just, oh, they were handed this job. I would have to imagine that impacts the culture on some level.
Scantlin (16:22):
Very much. Yeah. They have to show that they are able to perform outside of Kemin.
Reifenrath (16:29):
Excellent. All right. So how do you — you're not part of the family, you've come in as an outsider, so to speak. So how do you put your own mark on a family business? You're the president of a division, a large one, it's big business within multiple business units. So how do you put your own mark on that, but still keep that family value, cultural alignment and whatnot?
Scantlin (16:51):
You know, it'd be easy to say, “We are part of the family. We all act and cooperate the same.” That's not the case. What I've been impressed with from the family standpoint is the amount of autonomy and decision making, non bureaucracy that's awarded to the business unit presidents. So while we have our foundation of our core values, as well as our vision, it's up to us to be able to build our own businesses that are still reflective of what the family stands for. So again, very broad definition of what the family has has developed here. And it does allow the business unit presidents to bring in their own approach to culture, taking their interpretation of the values and bringing it into the business units.
Reifenrath (17:46):
All right. So I know this, and I think this is a really great part of your past, but you're in the Air Force. You're a commander. So what did you learn in the Air Force in regards to organizational culture and core values? And have you applied those in the private sector? Have there been versions or variations of it? There's gotta be an interesting twist there for you with that background?
Scantlin (18:09):
Sure. Um, that's a good point. When I started, I was right out of college. I did ROTC and then went into the Air Force, as you said there. At that point, the Air Force was still a little bit of a command and control type environment. That said, I was a Second Lieutenant, promoted up to a First Lieutenant and then to a Captain. The one thing I really took from that experience was I knew nothing as a Second Lieutenant, you know, nothing going into the Air Force, but yet you're awarded all of this authority as a Second Lieutenant — you're the responsible one there. And the good thing that I took away from that is the importance of the non-commissioned officers, the NCOs there. And I was fortunate to have two very important and influential ones with me, the ones that were respectful in the exterior, in front of the other Air Force personnel.
Scantlin (19:10):
But they're also the ones that would come in and shut the door and say, all right, Lieutenant, you messed this up bad. Don't ever do this again. Those were the experiences that I really recognized that you better understand and listen to the people that you work with. And even though you're in charge of it, there are situations that you know nothing about, and you really need to surround yourself with people that know a lot more than you. And I know that that phrase is overused, but it's so true. And that is something that I think I did take from the Air Force. There was one time we had to deliver — I was a section commander and we had to deliver disciplinary action. And my non-commissioned officer always said, don't do this unless I'm here with you to do it.
Scantlin (19:54):
Well, I didn't listen. And so the troop came in and I forgot to disarm him. And he had an M-16 and the staff Sergeant that was next to him also forgot to disarm him. So I proceeded to go through the disciplinary action with this airman and a click happened. Now, no one really knows what the click was. Some people argued that it was the safety that was coming off. At that same time was when my NCO walked in, disarmed that airman very quickly and proceeded to dismiss everybody in the room, shut that door and laid into me like nothing else. And it was the best experience in the world. I hated it when it was happening. I was embarrassed, scared, cuz I didn't know what was really going on with it. But he knew that he needed to be there to make sure all of the steps were taken to ensure we could go through this disciplinary action. So that was a very tangible example of you better listen to those people around you. They can literally save your life.
Reifenrath (20:55):
Wow. That's a pretty good leadership, very real leadership exercise…
Scantlin (21:02):
Listen, I wish everybody could go through it. Yeah.
Reifenrath (21:05):
Maybe not. I don't know if I needed to go through it. <laugh> So let's back up a little bit. Tell us a little bit about your journey. How did you get to the seat you're in today? You've got a beautifully colored past with the Air Force and a couple different organizations. So maybe just walk through that a little bit.
Scantlin (21:23):
Well, after about six years in the Air Force, my family — Melinda, and we had two kids at the time — we were kind of debating what pathway we wanted to take. Did we wanna stay in go career Air Force or was it time to get into the public sector? And we were home in southwest Kansas doing wheat harvest. It's actually my wife's farm and I was allowed at that time to be on the combine — never drive the combine, wasn't allowed to do that, she has three sisters and they were the ones that operated the combine. So I could be on the combine, but I got a call at that point from a friend that was a navigator and he had moved to Des Moines and he said that there was a human resources position opened up at this company called Kemin Industries.
Scantlin (22:10):
Of course, I didn't know who Kemin was, never been to Des Moines. But he said, is there any way that you can get on a plane tomorrow to come do an interview. Mind you, this was a Saturday night at Liberal, Kansas. And I said, well, what do I need to wear? Cuz I had a white t-shirt on, dirty with dirt and mud and all over. And he said, oh, just make sure you have a button down shirt and a tie. There was no button down shirt or a tie that I could get. So small town Liberal, we found the owner of JC Penney's. We were able to open it up so I could get on the plane on Sunday and came in and did the interview, which by the way again, I knew nothing about HR. I started trying to figure out what at least some of the basic terms were of ADA, whatever the, the different HR terms were at the, at the time, FMLA <laugh>.
Scantlin (22:59):
And those were actually questions that were asked during the interview when I started. So at least acted like I knew what I was doing with it. But what I noticed at that point is that Kemin was interviewing for passion. They were interviewing for energetic people that were gonna come in. And so that team that I interviewed with, great team, didn't know if I'd gotten the job or not. I left, got the call and said, okay, we want you to move to Des Moines. Talked to my wife and she said, okay, I guess we're moving to Des Moines! Again, never been there, but we transitioned out of the Air Force, went to Kemin and started their whole HR program. From there I stayed for about six years, went to Worldwide HR, and then I went to a company called Eurofins Scientific and started their microbiology.
Scantlin (23:45):
And this was the time of which I did start to learn the technical side. Mike Russell was my boss at that one. So we go back to the mentors, and he said, okay, go ahead and try to start this microbiology. And your first lesson is, can you stay, can you say listeria monocytogenes? And I could not say it at the time. And he said, okay, first lesson is, you've got to figure out how to use these terminologies in microbiology. I said, Mike, I have no idea what I'm doing in this. And I remember he walked out and hit my shoulder and he said, do what you do best. I thought, okay, that's just a phrase. What does he mean by it? He really was meaning something, which is all right, you were in human resources. The number one thing that you did and what you did very well with was to go in and recruit people. And so at that point, there were no sales in microbiology. I went out and recruited the entire team, very high quality microbiologists, business development people that could work with me. And we grew that into a company that was turning over around 15 million in sales. And we expanded it to five locations. At that point, talked to Kemin again, and Chris and Guiseppe, my boss now, and they said it's time to come home. So I came back and started leading the Food Technologies division here at Kemin and that's been the story.
Reifenrath (25:07):
Awesome. Something at Spinutech that we focus a lot on — you've probably heard this in conversations with me — is the get better every day mentality, that constant continual improvement. So what do you do for yourself to continue to learn and, and encourage and enable… I always think it starts with the leader when you showcase that it's gonna have your team follow. But what do you do personally, to get better every day?
Scantlin (25:31):
You know, I'll talk a little bit about what I do personally in a little bit, but what I try to instill upon my whole leadership team is: Our job, at the end of the day, is to grow our people. It's not always fun when we do that and it's not fun for my direct reports either. They know that. I always kind of look at the phrase: If you're comfortable, you're doing something wrong. My job is not to make you comfortable. My job is to continually challenge you. And if you're uncomfortable, you're doing the right thing. That means I'm continuously putting situations in front of you that are going to allow you to grow. And that's my expectation for my leadership team, for their employees. And I think that comes from then Chris and Guiseppe to me as well.
Scantlin (26:19):
It's that constant push to say, what is the next idea? We just had our strategic plan meeting with all of the Kemin Industries leadership team last week. We have all of these great initiatives going on from, as you mentioned, Marc, the Proteus acquisition. We have some natural acids that we're bringing into our market, a lot of good ideas that are going on, and I thought we're all set. And it was two minutes after we had the conversation Guiseppe said, “What's next? What, what are you doing next?” And it took me aback. I said, “What do you mean, what are we doing next? We have all of these ideas that we're doing.” That's great. That's great. What are we doing next? So, you know, I think it's more of what they're doing with me. And then what I in turn do for my direct reports, that's a good environment for continuous progress, continuous change, and never relaxing.
Reifenrath (27:11):
Good. Good. All right. Maybe describe the campus at Kemin in Des Moines, it's pretty amazing. You've got a great building. You've got a dining center, you've got workout facilities. How do those things… Has the value of that changed in the last two years? Has it increased? Just talk about the physicality of culture and what's all going on in the world right now. Are you set up for success? Do you need to adapt? There's a lot of things in that question, but kind of unpack that for what that means to Kemin.
Scantlin (27:45):
So back to, I think, the first thing that you were saying with it, which was what does the campus mean? There was a transition that took place when we brought all of the business units to this central campus, because before that we had outgrown the original campus and that's what really started the construction of this. What that did was it brought all of the business units from our food divisions to our pet divisions, to our ag divisions, as well as the K group Kemin Industries group under one roof. And while the workday allowed for quick check-ins between business units, it also introduced lunchtime where we have, as you mentioned, the cafeteria, which we are very proud of. It's called R Dubs after the founder, RW. I kind of feel sorry for Burger King and McDonald's that are just about three blocks away because as soon as we opened this up, I know the business just dropped considerably for them.
Scantlin (28:42):
It's because people stay here. It's really good food. We got some good healthy food, but it really allowed some interaction outside of, you know, business discussions to take place. So that was a good cultural integration that we were able to do. Starbucks obviously is a good one for the morning, and afternoons, I guess, for some people, to be able to meet there and kind of catch up. The fitness facility is one that we continually encourage. It's great to — all times of the day — just to take 30 minutes and go in there and run a little bit or lift little weights. It's probably the area I get most in trouble with because it's supposed to be a work free zone and I can't help it if I'm in there and three other people come in and, you know, we have some work conversations… I'll start on the conversation, but I'm continually counseled that that that is not the right environment for that. And so I'm working on it, but I have to admit, it's not always the case. Fast forwarding, now we have the pandemic that hit and with that, we did shut down not all of it, but a vast majority of the workflow and the employees coming in. And so that's introduced a different kind of environment for us now where we're trying to balance what we had with this culture that we have established with what the working from home kind of introduced into the workforce. And so that's one where, again, we're having to listen to the employees and listen to the managers as to how are we gonna adapt? How are we gonna morph with this? So we have introduced a policy that does allow from some work from home. I'm gonna kind of wait and see how that plays out. For me personally, I really enjoy having everybody here so that we can interact. That said, I know the world has changed a little bit, and I know that the word flexibility has really become a common terminology when it comes to work life balance and location of where work is being done. So I can't answer as to what's right and wrong on that. I can say that we have had to be more flexible in how we're approaching it.
Reifenrath (30:52):
Yeah. I think we're all still learning and flexibility means different things to different people and work environment means different things to different people. We're all still learning and that's why it's such an interesting topic right now, cuz it does continue to change and evolve and what we believe today may change six months from now and 12 months from now. So it's a good evolving one. All right. Looking back, your philosophy on culture and core values, go back to let's say post Air Force, when your service was done, what's changed in the way you view culture and core values versus today?
Scantlin (31:38):
I wouldn’t say much has changed as much as it has been maybe more adapted to what the environment is. Again, the hierarchy of the Air Force when I was in there was very rank focused. The way I was brought up in the Air Force, when I go back to those non-commissioned officers, was much, much more advanced in the understanding of how we interact, than maybe a lot of people had been brought up in the Air Force. With that, I was very grateful that I had been subjected more towards, okay, even though you're the officer in the environment, you need to really pay attention to what's going on. And that was really the environment of security forces, where there were very few officers and it was very heavily driven by enlisted non-commissioned officers. So I was very subject to that. That said, Tammy Golden Finning was my boss when I joined here, and she will continually say that she had to culture me a lot into what the environment of Kemin was compared to the environment of the Air Force. And I know that there were some learning pains on both sides, from the intensity level of how we interact, that had to be toned down a lot. I think with me personally, coming in, I know that was the case and I still think that's the case. I think that's how people describe me a little bit is: You still have the Air Force intensity. I don't think that's ever gonna move away from me. I'm just very self-aware of what that means. So that's probably where I've had to adjust the most. So long as I can get to know the people that I work with, I think we kind of get an understanding as to what I'm meaning by it versus maybe the first impressions.
Reifenrath (33:42):
Right? I mean…
Scantlin (33:44):
Marc, whenever we were talking with you about joining the YPO… <laugh>
Reifenrath (33:47):
I was just gonna say my first interaction with you was extremely intense, Speaking to YPO, this was my first reaction with you was when you interviewed me basically to join the forum that you're in and I'm in now, but it was also a good tone to set from my perspective of, wow, these guys really care about who they may or may not let into that group, which also is a cultural thing. Culture, it impacts different interactions in our life. And I think that our forum has its own culture that we've kind of grown into. That was really an initial statement to me of how much that group cared about who they were gonna let in, and not that somebody wasn't a good person or whatever, but you just needed the right fit. It was very clear to me that you cared deeply about that. But I was a little bit intimidated. You were — even though you had a great name and spelled it right — I was like, this guy's pretty intense. I mean, he's gonna hold me to task, which was great.
Scantlin (34:42):
Yeah. With that foundation of culture comes all the daily operations and one of the big ones is trust. And so you bring in people — that is compromised. That's a recipe for disaster.
Reifenrath (34:57):
Absolutely. So talking about YPO, what has YPO meant to you? What has it provided you or how has it helped you get better every day? How would you describe YPO in your journey?
Scantlin (35:11):
As we all know on the YPO side, there's personal — there's family — and there's business. I think the very big side of our forum and what it has done for me has been on the business side. So if I go back to this acquisition that is two and a half years in the making, my YPO forum members, if anyone were to go ask them, what was the Proteus acquisition like and what did it mean? Every one of them could answer in detail what that acquisition was doing. And that's just because of how much I needed that forum when we were doing deal structures, alignment, the pitfalls… I think it's great when we hear about what worked, it's more important when people can introduce where they've had pitfalls and that happened quite a bit in our forum.
Scantlin (36:05):
And that's great, cuz then I could bring it back to: better watch out. Actually a big part of it was Marc, make sure you are laser focused on, that cultural integration. Don't bring something that's gonna really mess up what you've established within your Food Technologies group. From a personal side, we had a challenge with our youngest son. In December he was diagnosed with a pituitary tumor and it came very shocking to my family, to Melinda, and I use that forum as a sounding board. The good thing is, you can, speak very openly in that forum about how you're feeling and our form was an extremely sound foundation that I could really go through everything that he was going through and the challenges I was going through with it. And a lot of times people just listened. They didn't say anything, they just let me talk about it and then we would move on. So those are the two that I'll introduce. The rest, I'll kind of leave off to the side.
Reifenrath (37:17):
Right. And I think that that's important. As leaders, there's a saying that it's lonely at the top, but YPO provides that outlet for that. If, as a leader, you're not sound in those three categories that you mentioned, the personal life can totally interfere with the way that we lead and the impact that we can make as leaders. So I think having that personal board and, you know, the struggle you just mentioned, it's important to have an outlet for that to get yourself rights that when you do show up for each category, you're presenting your best self. That's what I've found that it helps a lot too. You described that really well with some of those examples. Well, listen, thank you so much for being on. Last question: Is there anything that I should have asked that I didn't, that you would like me to ask you or like to answer?
Scantlin (38:05):
I never got you to ask what my favorite color was. That's kind of a big one to me.I wish, you know, if we could have gone into more personal ones on that though. No, I think this is a good podcast. Good questions that you've been asking.
Reifenrath (38:20):
Awesome. Well, again, thank you so much for your time. I know that it's precious as a leader and can't thank you enough. We'll talk to you soon.