Manufacturing Happy Hour

Joe Sullivan has been making his mark on B2B marketing for well over a decade. He's the Founder of Gorilla76, an industrial marketing agency that helps mid-sized B2B manufacturers identify, attract, engage, and drive sales opportunities with ideal-fit customers. Most recently, he launched The Manufacturing Executive Podcast, a show focused on conversations with passionate manufacturing leaders who have compelling stories to share about their successes and struggles.In this episode, Joe gives us a thorough crash course in marketing for industrial clients. We debunk some common misperceptions around marketing before Joe shares Gorilla76’s Industrial Marketing Roadmap strategy. The best content comes from the minds of your experts, and we’ll cover how to extract knowledge to create material that solves your customers’ problems and draws in new clients. From budgeting to pillar content to social media, we’ll cover plenty of strategies that will turn your marketing from an expense into a sales-generating machine.Make sure to visit ManufacturingHappyHour.com for detailed show notes and a full list of resources mentioned in this episode. Stay Innovative, Stay Thirsty.

We’re back with the Q&A segment of our live fireside chat in this bonus episode on the brewing industry. This time, the attendees from one of our recent “virtual happy hours” with our Manufacturing Happy Hour Industry Community get to ask the questions. We discuss why people, process, and technology are so critical to digital transformation in brewing, while tackling recent events and their impact on brewers. From COVID-19 & remote work to flexibility in markets like Germany where purity law is king, there’s more great discussion amongst our panelists from the Canadian beer market.Make sure to visit ManufacturingHappyHour.com for detailed show notes and a full list of resources mentioned in this episode. Stay Innovative, Stay Thirsty. 

We invited a panel of industrial brewing experts onto one of our recent “virtual happy hours” with our Manufacturing Happy Hour Industry Community, and the conversation was too good not to turn it into a podcast! This episode features a fireside chat that we co-hosted with Steve Grundy, the Founder & CEO of Top 5 Solutions, who assembled a rockstar cast of beer industry leaders, including:Connor MacDonald, a Brewing Automation and Controls Expert at McRae IntegrationStephen Rich, Brewmaster and Director of Innovation & Education at Cowbell BrewingNicholas Chan, Owner of ICONICK Project GroupIn this first episode of our 2-part deep-dive into the beer industry, our panelists cover:Smart manufacturing and brewing industry technologyTrends impacting manufacturing and the associated need for flexibility in beer-makingAn in-depth discussion on sustainability, including examples of lowering your carbon footprint and reducing water usageMake sure to visit ManufacturingHappyHour.com for detailed show notes and a full list of resources mentioned in this episode. Stay Innovative, Stay Thirsty. 

Jim Quinn knows a thing or two about successfully scaling companies. Throughout his long career as an operations leader, Jim has optimized supply chains for profitable growth at companies like Apple, FitBit, and Applied Materials, just to name a few.Jim is now the CEO at Plethora, a company that provides flexible Manufacturing as a Service options for making custom parts in as fast as 3 days. In this episode, we discuss how Plethora’s novel software automates the quoting, DFM, and CAM processes for manufacturers looking to bring their CAD files to life quickly and economically through precision CNC machining. Beyond Plethora, Jim shares some of his best operations & supply chain lessons with stories and strategies from all points of his career. From Buddhism to cucumber-basil gimlets, this episode has it all.Make sure to visit ManufacturingHappyHour.com for detailed show notes and a full list of resources mentioned in this episode. Stay Innovative, Stay Thirsty. 

When it comes to digital transformation in manufacturing, no one has more experience and passion than Bob Murphy. Bob is the Sr. VP of Connected Enterprise Consulting at Rockwell Automation and one of the organization’s leaders that led Rockwell through their own digital transformation across their global manufacturing facilities.In this episode, Bob links up with Scott Feldmann from Accenture’s Industry X.0 team to share the strategies and stories of a successful enterprise-wide MES implementation. From aligning the right people, processes, and technologies to expanding a transformation beyond the four walls of the enterprise – creating a ‘digital thread’ that starts with your suppliers and ends with your customers – Scott and Bob share real-world examples while addressing listener questions during one of our recent virtual happy hours.Make sure to visit ManufacturingHappyHour.com for detailed show notes and a full list of resources mentioned in this episode. Stay Innovative, Stay Thirsty. 

Galina Antova is a security savant and the Co-Founder of Claroty, a leader in cybersecurity for operations technology for critical infrastructure. But, we cover a whole lot more than attack vectors and the current security threat landscape on today’s show.In this episode, we kick off our interview discussing OT security strategies before moving to discussions on startups, managing rapid growth, and taking on unconscious bias in the workplace. Galina has thrived as a leader in a male-dominated industry, and she shares her story as well as the actions everyone can take to even the playing field.From leading through uncertainty to navigating through a “perfect storm” in OT cybersecurity, this episode is packed with value from start to finish.Make sure to visit ManufacturingHappyHour.com for detailed show notes and a full list of resources mentioned in this episode. Stay Innovative, Stay Thirsty. 

How do you rebrand an iconic St. Louis beer that’s 169-years-old? You need to understand the cultures it connects with, create a customer base that drives the brand forward on your behalf, and have passion that allows you to make courageous decisions.No one knows this better than master marketer and “conductor of creativity” Corey Smale. Corey is the Brand Manager for Stag Beer, one of Pabst Brewing’s regional beers. Over the past year, Corey has reshaped the brand while still respecting its heritage, and it’s reflected in the beer’s sales growth.In this episode, Corey walks us through his journey as a marketer – most recently leading the Stag brand – and how they’ve connected with their audience and executed on “dope ideas” – from live events to user-generated content – that have resulted in gaining market share for the first time in years. There are plenty of actionable marketing ideas that B2B brands can pull from this beer-fueled conversation.Make sure to visit ManufacturingHappyHour.com for detailed show notes and a full list of resources mentioned in this episode. Stay Innovative, Stay Thirsty. 

In this last episode of our cybersecurity mini-series with Rockwell Automation, we’re switching our focus to industrial control system product security. This includes an overview of security standards like ISA/IEC 62443 and how they apply to ICS providers of products and services.Seasoned security experts Megan Samford and Shoshana Wodzisz jump on the show this week to walk us through our topic. With their focus on global product security, we’ll dive into how ICS security fits into critical infrastructure, as well as the ins-and-outs of IEC 62443. From the importance of 3rd party certification to why it's important to avoid repurposing IT standards, our series wraps up with some actionable details that every information security leader should hear.After you listen, forward this podcast to your company’s IT Manager or Chief Information & Security Officer. Make sure to visit ManufacturingHappyHour.com/Cybersecurity for a full list of industrial security resources from Rockwell Automation. Stay Innovative, Stay Thirsty.

We probably all remember where we were when news started to break about COVID-19 shutting down the world around us. Dan Stutterheim was at the NCAA Big 12 Tournament when he got word that sports – and everything else – were going on hiatus. As it became clear that life as we know was about to change, he quickly doubled-down on protecting his team and his business.Dan is the CEO of Kasa, a Salina, KS-based controls and automation company that is known just as much for their resilient culture as they are for their engineering expertise. In this episode, Dan walks us through the steps he took to keep his people and his business healthy at the start of COVID-19. This includes activities Kasa had been focused on long before the pandemic, including courageous culture dialogues and narrowing focus to a few key success metrics. Dan also shares lessons he’s learned from his team as they navigate these uncharted waters, and new business practices they plan to maintain moving forward.Make sure to visit ManufacturingHappyHour.com for detailed show notes and a full list of resources mentioned in this episode. Stay Innovative, Stay Thirsty. 

We just finished discussing what manufacturers can learn about operations and customer experience from the amusement park industry, so now let’s have some fun. Josh Liebman from the AttractionPros podcast is back for another episode, only this time, it’s all about roller coasters.Josh and I have each ridden our fair share of coasters around the world and it’s a wonder that we kept this episode to less than an hour. We’ll be sharing some of our favorite rides, trips, and stories about some of the craziest coasters on the planet. While we might not be talking about industry best practices in this episode, there’s no better topic to give us a short “vacation” from our typical content.Make sure to visit ManufacturingHappyHour.com for detailed show notes and a full list of resources mentioned in this episode. Stay Innovative, Stay Thirsty.