54. The Virtues of Niche Manufacturing Excellence with Matt Gustafson from Clinkenbeard Matt grew up on the shop floor of Clinkenbeard, a business his father bought in the late 70s and he became a pattern maker. He is now the President and leads this incredible AS9100-certified company that specializes in highly complex 5-axis machined parts and highly specialized training devices for the defense and space industries. Picture a full-scale, 100% realistic model of an F35 engine for use by technicians learning to service these engines in the field. Super cool! And lucrative! While Matt doesn’t disclose their margins, they have exceptional revenue per employee, no doubt affected by their aggressive adoption of technology to increase efficiency, but also their specialization in niche industries where that specialization puts them in a great position to have strong financial performance. About Clinkenbeard: Since 1966 Clinkenbeard has served industrial and aerospace OEM’s with rapid turnaround complex machined parts and assemblies. We are a worldwide leader in the rapid prototyping and production of complex cast and machined parts and have the internal resources and the engineering horsepower to tackle large, complex problems with concurrent manufacturing engineering support. Follow Matt and Clinkenbeard on Social Media: Personal LI: /matt-gustafson Company LI: /clinkenbeard Website: www.clinkenbeard.com FB: @ClinkenbeardM2M X: @Clinkenbeard