The Innovators with George Davison
The Innovators with George Davison
Forestry Innovations with Matt Mattioda, Miller Timber Services
From drones to communicative machines to remote operations, there is a ton of foresty innovations and technology taking place in the world. Miller Timber Services and Ponsse both started from one person having a simple idea to harvest trees better and have transformed into continually improving the forestry industry.
On this episode of The Innovators, host George Davison talks to Matt Mattioda, the Vice President and Chief Forester of Miller Timber Services, about taking technology to the woods, failing your way forward, and fighting forest fires.
For more information on the future of forestry, head to TomorrowsWorldToday.com.
It all starts with one idea. Have you ever wondered how today's top CEOs, business leaders and people who work for the most innovative companies in the world found success? Join host George Davison, as he explores the innovators that are shaping tomorrow's world today.
George Davison:And today we have Matt Mattioda and he is the chief Forester. Also the vice president of cut the length systems and his organization is collaborating with Ponsse, which is an equipment company that makes some of the equipment that they use in the field. So let's open up our conversation today, Matt, uh, just kind of, uh, curious about how your company got started. If you could run us up to speed on what your operation does. And then can you talk a little bit about Ponsse and the founding of that organization?
Matt Mattioda, Miller Timber Services:Sure, sure can. Thanks. Thanks for the introduction. Appreciate that. Um, so our company is Miller Timber Services. We're based out of Flomax, Oregon on the West Coast. Uh, we're a full cycle forestry services provider, full cycle, meaning we work with the trees from the time they're planted his little seedlings all the way through caring for those trees during, as they grow, um, protecting those trees from wildfire and then harvesting the trees when they're ready to be harvested.
George Davison:Interesting. So you, how did you get started? Can you tell us a little story about the entrepreneur or that, uh, that started this venture?
Matt Mattioda, Miller Timber Services:Sure. Our company was founded by a gentleman by the name of Lee Miller. Um, Lee was an entrepreneur is an entrepreneur and he came up with this idea of he wanted to work in the woods. He grew up in a forested environment and wanted to have his own business. So he went to school at Oregon State University in the College of Forestry and upon graduation, um, did the equivalent of starting a business out of a garage. He started it with a chain on a pickup truck,
George Davison:Good for him.
Matt Mattioda, Miller Timber Services:So he started out there doing manual labor in the woods, cutting brush and thinning out small trees and, and it slowly, uh, the business started to take off and he hired his first employee, a longtime friend of his and the business continued to grow and grow. And now we have, uh, about 150 full-time employees and about 250 in the middle of an active fire season in the middle of summer. So, um, but he's since moved, um, moved on from the, the pickup truck and that we have two facility, actually three facilities. We have one in Northern Idaho, one in Oregon and one in California, we've just, uh, just purchased.
George Davison:Wonderful. And while you're doing all that work, you also are working with an all sorts of unique equipment. Aren't you?
Matt Mattioda, Miller Timber Services:We are, uh, these Ponsse machines are fantastic. They're a great group of folks and they're very innovative in their designs and the approach of how we manage, uh, and harvest and thin, uh, forested environments.
George Davison:So it might be a little hard on in this kind of a venue to describe what these machines do for you and your operators. But could you describe it a little bit so that our audience can understand what the Ponsse machine is doing? Sure. Okay.
Matt Mattioda, Miller Timber Services:So if we were to step back in time a little bit, maybe 40 years or so, a lot of trees were cut by hand, uh, be a gentlemen with like Lee started with the chains on a pickup truck and they'd go out to the forest and they were going to thin trees or harvest trees and they'd go out and they pull out their chainsaw and put on their ear protection and, and chaps to protect themselves. And they'd go cut down a tree by hand is the old school way, just not with an ax, but with a chainsaw. So step forward to where we're at now. And we use these Ponsse machines and the ponds and machines do the same thing. So instead of, um, Lee being out there, let's say with a chainsaw in his hand, you be in the machine and you're controlling the machine almost like a video game and the machine reaches out with its arm and it has a chainsaw on the bottom of it essentially grabs the tree, falls the tree. And then what it does is just like someone would need to cut the limbs off the tree to make a log, to go to the sawmill. Um, the machine actually pulls the tree through this harvesting head, the limbs, it measures the length and diameter as it's pulling the tree through, as it's feeding through the tree. And then it gets to the place that we've predetermined with the computer, where we want to make blogs based on certain values pauses. The chainsaw bar comes out again and bucks the tree into logs,
George Davison:What an innovation. So we are so we're harvesting a, a tree and instead of falling a tree and letting it hit the ground and then going by with a chain. So I'm cutting every little limb off, then you'd have to pick it up. This, this sounds something like out of a Dr. Seuss book where the device picks the tree cuts, it holds the tree, cuts, the tree, then holds the tree through a, like a tube and D limbs. It cuts it and stacks it is that, is that a fair way for our audience to think about this?
Matt Mattioda, Miller Timber Services:So, yes, that's a, that's a, that's a great way to look at this and we can do it faster and more importantly safer than we could by doing it by hand. So we're taking a lot of people out of harm's way by putting them inside a protective cab that's designed, uh, for safety. So a lot of folks at work in the woods, um, can get hurt very easily with falling trees and walking around in the woods, but you put them inside of an enclosed cab. Um, now you're in an environment that's safe for you. Um, and so it's not only, it's more productive. It's also see,
George Davison:And it makes a lot of sense. I, um, when we first opened up the conversation, you were talking about managing, uh, the forest and harvesting, uh, from a seedling all the way up and through. There's a lot of responsibility and proper management of the forest. Isn't there
Matt Mattioda, Miller Timber Services:There's a lot. And the decisions we make today may last 20, 30, 50 years. So foresters have to have a long-term view of things, uh, because our impacts last for long periods of time and those decisions last for long periods of time.
George Davison:So in the world of, uh, that you operate in, I imagine there are all sorts of different types of jobs that, uh, that need to be filled. Uh, if you were, uh, going back into the days when you were a young buck, when, what would you, would you recommend, uh, or, you know, looking back on it, mentoring somebody, if somebody wanted to get into your field, how would they do that?
Matt Mattioda, Miller Timber Services:Great question. So if you were to get one again in the forestry, um, there are several really good forestry schools in United States, um, that can help point you that direction with inside of those colleges and universities, there are different forestry programs related to different aspects of forestry. So a forest engineer, um, they typically lay out road systems, lay out harvest units, things of that nature. They have a little different roles and I'm school is a Forester. So my role is actually in the growing and tending of the trees and, and the forestry cycle, and we call silver culture. Um, and there may be other folks that are related in official wildlife positions that work with foresters to help make decisions about what we do out there. Um, so there are a variety of career paths that one can take.
George Davison:That's interesting. I think the audience probably learning for the first time that there were schools that focus on this.
Matt Mattioda, Miller Timber Services:Yes. The college of forestry at Oregon State U niversity, which is where I went to school is ranked second in the world for, uh, forestry programs. Um, it's a great school. There's also forest recreation program are programs there as well. So you can be involved in the growing and harvesting of trees, the designing of road systems, or maybe it's forest recreation, um, fish and wildlife programs. So it's basically a school. That's got a lot of opportunities for folks that, that like to be out in the natural environment.
George Davison:Wonderful. So let's unwind you a little bit, if we could, maybe we can give the kids a glimpse into how you came up, uh, from where you were to where you are today, because you're an executive today, but you weren't always an executive. Um, you started out somehow, can you give us how you started out in the world and kind of take us on a little path forward?
Matt Mattioda, Miller Timber Services:Sure. So I grew up in the Eastern part of the bay area in a tunnel that Creek, which is a suburb of, of the San Francisco bay area. Um, middle-class family. My dad was a general contractor still is. And, um, so I would go out to the job sites with my dad and he'd be building a house or adding on the house. And, and he, I was always fascinated by wood. I just loved wood and working with wood and dad would bring wood home. So my brothers and I we'd play with wood, you know, build a tree Fort and all those kind of things in the backyard. So like wood, and then, uh, you know, his family would go camping. So we go up to this, the Sierras in California, go up to the mountains and we go camping and just love being out in the woods. And so, um, we're trying to figure out, well, what do I want to do when I graduate high school? And I was kinda thinking, you know, I don't know, right. What do I do? But I really like wood and I, I really liked camping and being out in the woods. Well, forestry sounds good. So I applied to a couple of different, uh, forestry schools in United States and got accepted and decided to, to go to Oregon state as the one I chose to go to. And, um, so I, I got up there to Oregon State went to school and I honestly knew very little about forestry at all. I couldn't even tell you what a dump was for a tree was, and that's the predominant timber species we deal with in the Northwest. And I could identify one. I just, I knew that little, I just knew I liked trees and I knew I liked wood. So, you know, I started, I started with very little and from a suburban environment, I just knew I wanted to do something out there and just kind of learned. And I had some great mentors, um, in summers when I was going to college. So they have programs there where they're hooking students up with mentors in the industry, kind of like an internship programs for the summer. And so a lot of students, you know, they, they, sometimes they rotate around with different companies or different organizations. Every summer. I ended up having one that I really enjoyed my right out of the right out of the gate and at the career fair. And I worked with them all every summer when I was going through school and it was hired on full-time after.
George Davison:That's wonderful. And those mentors m ay mean quite a bit to us when we're younger, d on't they?
Matt Mattioda, Miller Timber Services:I learned so much from them. Of course, you know, I learned a lot in school. I learned a basis for a lot of what we do, you know, the, the scientific background, the decisions and why we make decisions. But then I learned a lot of the practical came from the folks in the field that I learned from and, and their experiences, um, actually doing. So it's been, it's been great.
George Davison:That's a great way to do it. Actually doing it. That's, uh, you know, inventing making and, you know, storytelling is the world in which we w which we play in, in the world of innovation, uh, but doing or making, I would consider those the same, but, uh, very, very important that you're actually doing things with your hands or your mind to make things happen.
Matt Mattioda, Miller Timber Services:It's a little of both, and, you know, there's the, there's the world of the theoretical and the world of the practical. And you've got to figure out where that you can merge those two. So I learned a theoretical at school and learned a practical in the field while say,
George Davison:Well said, thank you for that. Thank you very much. Um, so if you could do one thing over again in your high school or early college days, what would it be and why?
Matt Mattioda, Miller Timber Services:No, I kind of probably bloomed a little late. No, I didn't. When I was in high school, I went through high school and just kind of got through high school and wasn't really, didn't have a focus at that point in time. And it probably wasn't until I was maybe a junior in college that it really started to settle in and figure that, oh, I better really pay attention here. This stuff means something. So if I was to go back, I think I would feel back with the knowledge that a lot of things matter that I didn't believe mattered to the, at the time people were telling me they mattered, but I didn't really believe him, you know, um, the stem programs. Yes. Science, technology, engineering, math. I mean, all those things matter. I mean, I enjoyed them, but I didn't take it as seriously as I should have. So I, if I was to go back, I would take those subjects much more seriously.
George Davison:That's interesting. Yeah. That's some great mentoring advice for our audience today. And I would agree with you, that's having a serious commitment, a more serious commitment to the stem based coursework, um, it really helps you understand a lot more in the world and maybe you can find a niche that, that fills that part of you that you want to chase down. So, uh,
Matt Mattioda, Miller Timber Services:Good advice. Yeah. I think, um, if you really want to be successful in life, you find the thing you're passionate about and follow it.
George Davison:Yeah. Well said, Matt, I agree with you. All right. So shall we move on? Yeah. All right. Um, so how would you suggest students get hands-on experience to build some of the skills that they would be able to use in their adult lives? Are there any classes you might recommend, you mentioned stem, but is there any more detail that you could get into there
Matt Mattioda, Miller Timber Services:Related to what, just in general?
George Davison:In general, and helping you get through life, or maybe that might've helped you in your career, any other hands on or mentors helping you get some hands-on?
Matt Mattioda, Miller Timber Services:Yeah. You know, I have a neighbor growing up next to me as a kid, and he was a research chemist for DOW chemical, and his name was Cal and Cal. Um, one of the smartest men I ever met and that was taking shop class, um, metal class. And I had this piece of metal and I went over to Cal one day and I said, Hey, Cal, what? I want to know what kind of metal this is. And, and Cal Cal said, um, well, I think, I think it's this, but hold on, let me find something. And he came to me the next day was about a 40 page book, how to determine which alloy that was. And I would just want to know, what is this brass resist? Is this like copper recal, but right. But Cal would mentor me and give me advice, you know, and, and take things that I thought were pretty simple and show me, um, it's actually, a lot of things in life are a lot more complicated than, than you may think and how to go about that process of, you know, determining what something is. So I I'd say find someone that's that you trust that you, um, have a relationship with, and it could be in something completely different than what is you want to study, but they will help help guide you. Um, you know, Cal was a chemist, I'm a Forester, but Cal helped to guide me and teach me the scientific method and how to think for myself and question things. So I I'd say find someone that you trust in your own realm, talk to them, ask them what they do, why they do it and explain to them, what are your goals in life? What would you like? You, what's your passion and, and how, how can, how can I get to where I want to be?
George Davison:How fortunate you were to have a guy like Cal next you, you know, a DOW chemist and, uh, who understands raw material science and the scientific method. Those are, those are some pretty important pieces of the puzzle in the world of innovation. And, uh, so yeah, if you can find somebody in your area that you can trust, that's a good, that's a good pickup and has some that is interesting. Yeah. My, when I was a boy, I had a Westinghouse, um, chemist who lived across the street from us and he was a very unique person. Um, he was, so he made me very curious because he was working on lasers back in the day when lasers were only something you read about in a comic book, you know, and, uh, you know, just odd things like one day a laser shows up on my bedroom wall. And I, I, I thought we were being invaded by Martians or something, But it gets your curiosity going, you know, and, uh, again, another mentor signs operate, you know, a science oriented person. So
Matt Mattioda, Miller Timber Services:Thinking around with things, right. And, you know, we talk in our company all the time or management team we talk about, don't be afraid to fail. And here you go. I mean, it's, it's, uh, it's, I'm, I'm good at failing, right? And it's a, it's a, it's a process that we use to grow and, and, you know, the things that come hard, you appreciate them, you appreciate them more. And, you know, we gotta, we gotta win more than we lose. So we've got to at least be 51% winning, but, uh, but don't be afraid don't be afraid to fail. And I think a lot of times, um, probably the things that hold us back the most are actually between our ears. They're not people are or systems that are holding us back. It's our it's ourself. We're limiting ourselves a lot. So if you can kind of get past that and go, I can do whatever I want to do. If I put my mind to it, I'll find people that'll work with me and want to help me do what I need to do. But, you know, I got to just, I need to do this on my own and we need to move forward.
George Davison:So as a young person, if you can show the initiative and maybe find a mentor and build, eventually you'll start to build confidence. And when you start building some confidence, those other barriers come down a little don't they, cause you're not afraid to trip and fall and get back up. And just, that is part of the learning process. So I think that's some wonderful advice you were given to these young people today. So thank you. No problem. It's going to be plenty of thank you because already I can tell this interview is really going really well, so great. So we're off to a good start.
Matt Mattioda, Miller Timber Services:When you think about failing, I mean, how many times did Edison fail, uh, building a light bulb, right. And he said he didn't really fail. I just found out healthy, different ways and how not to make a light bulb.
George Davison:That's part of the process of figuring it out. Isn't it?
Matt Mattioda, Miller Timber Services:It is. And so even what I do in our job, and we're pushing the technological boundaries with these machines, we're asking Ponce for and how we'd manage and do different processes. We're going to push and we're going to find out where those limits are and we're going to figure out, okay, that's the limit today? How can I innovate? What do we need to do? What are some ideas, how to change to get past that, whatever that particular hurdle may be. And sometimes it doesn't come right away, right? Sometimes it takes a couple attempts at something and trying different things and we learn and we grow and we keep track of those, those things that worked maybe in a different situation, would they be applicable here? So, you know, thinking, thinking differently, thinking, um, innovatively, uh, it's something that, that comes kind of natural to us at our company. And I think for young, young people out there, young students, don't be afraid. Don't be afraid to have an idea that you think maybe isn't right, right. Try it.
George Davison:You don't know. You don't know. And I, and I agree with you. There's a, uh, there's a side story. I'll, we'll talk about that in just a moment. But, uh, I think they're very lucky over at Ponsse that, you know, they're working with an organization like yours, you are actually utilizing their equipment on identifying potential new needs that you have. And then do you funnel that back into the research and development department at Ponsse? So they they're getting real field knowledge from people getting their hands dirty every day, doing the work. And, uh, they can then try to strive for the next level over there. Is that fair to say
Matt Mattioda, Miller Timber Services:It is fair to say, we do lots of requests for asks from Ponsse and we throw ideas at them. Like, what about this? What about that? They kick ideas back and forth with us. U m, like there's a f irefighting water tanks that we've just been developing with them. It took two years and a back and forth, and now we've got the first one o n o n-site. And now that we have our hands on the first one, w e'll l et generation one, we've already thought of a bunch of changes for generations t o,
George Davison:So what caused that to happen? So usually there's a cause, and then there's an effect, right? So, um, there was an observational analysis, what was seen in the field that caused that to happen. Okay.
Matt Mattioda, Miller Timber Services:Based on the number of fires that we're having in our companies heavily involved in wild land firefighting, we wanted to see, is there a better way, a safer way to get water out to the field, to help reduce these wildfires, to suppress them earlier, um, with maybe, um, a shorter timeframe and safer, um, and with maybe a little less people, so we can free up resources to go help fight other parts of the fire. Cause when the, when a wildfire occurs, you know, they're usually over a large area and there's a tremendous resource drain or a lot of folks are needed. So every there's limited resources. So how can we stretch our resources out to be more effective with what we do and do it safer? So this idea of taking a forwarder, which we normally use for harvesting operations and putting, integrating a water supply in a and a water cannon on it and packing 2,640 gallons of water out from the away from the road into the woods.
George Davison:That's wonderful, wonderful, good innovation, right? It is. It's great.
Matt Mattioda, Miller Timber Services:It's fun.
George Davison:So just to touch back up before I forget, I want to make sure that touchback for the audience, but the failing your way forward. I had a great mentor in one of my schools that I was in, when I was a middle schooler, my science teacher, we had to do an experiment. We had to come up with an idea and this partner of mine, we decided we were going to try to make a tornado go upside down. And so, you know, we reversed it. We had the hot on the top and the cold on the bottom. And then we build a box with the glass that we could slide the panels. And we thought we were going to be able to make this tornado go upside down. And, uh, and we, it, we couldn't get it to work. And, uh, so we were, well, we try, we tried as hard as we could. And, uh, but when I got my grade, it was an a, and that was the beginning of understanding, had a great mentor as a science teacher in middle school. And, uh, what he taught us was no, because you failed doesn't mean you failed, you tried, it didn't work out, but what a great experiment. And I realized, Hey, we captured his curiosity too. He wanted to see if this would actually work. Um, but failing your way forward is just, I just want to make sure we touch back on that just for a moment, but all right. So let's, shall we move on? Yeah. Okay. So if I had to ask you for a maker tip for these students there in the world today, what kind of, uh, what kind of things would you want me to know or want the kids to know if I was in your operation? What would, what would be a maker tip,
Matt Mattioda, Miller Timber Services:Uh, maker tip? Can you describe a maker tip, um,
George Davison:Uh, as like a suggestion on, if I wanted to learn how to make things and make a contribution at your organization, how could I become a good maker? I'm a young person I'm in middle school or high school. And, uh, what things could I do at home that might ignite my mental competency?
Matt Mattioda, Miller Timber Services:H mm. You know, we, we do have, we, we host some school tours with kids and we're going to actually do one, do two of t hem next week down in California, where they bring the school kids out a nd we're going to watch, they're going to watch the machines work and t hen move a round different stations. And i t s ets a fun time. A nd, and usually we get some drawings back from, from school kids about the machines a nd, and different innovations that they come up with. Right. Yeah. Doing things differently. And, u m, so they're very, u h, observant of what's going on out there. And they take a lot in, and I think as a, as a, as a maker, you know, observing the process and what's going on as a first step and then kind of going, well, how can I improve upon that? What can we do to maybe make this better? How c ould we be more efficient about it? And then did we get these drawings back something different? The machine looks different, right. Or there's, u m, you know, observing, trying to figure out what's the need or is there a need, or is there need t o, nobody even knows about yet. Right. And how, how can you change it, make it better.
George Davison:So building your observational skills is actually, it could be one of the most basic building blocks for a maker to have you can't, if you can't troubleshoot a problem, you can't figure out the solution. Right. All right. Well, that's, that's good. That's, that's a good one.
Matt Mattioda, Miller Timber Services:Observing. Yep.
George Davison:Uh, let's see here. All right. So let's talk about the future a little bit. Yeah. And, uh, the next, let's say, if we were to look out into the field 10 years, 30 years out, what would you think are some of the big innovations that are coming down the pathway here? Is it going to be all like traditional forestry? Are we going to see, you know, AI and technology going into the forest? We are,
Matt Mattioda, Miller Timber Services:We are. And we, we currently are, and we're going to see more of it. Um, you know, we're utilizing drones in forestry right now and taking photos and, and some of the technologies are allowing us to identify where the trees are in the landscape and the machines know where they are on the landscape. Now, when they, when they harvest trees, they know where the base machine is relative on the landscape. But I think as time goes on, the machine is going to be able to help us make decisions better about let's see a thinning operation, where we harvest some of the trees and leave some of the trees to grow. The machines are going to help the operators determine which ones to stay and go to meet a prescription or what a Forester designates is, what they want the forest to look like after it's done. Um, we're going to see some of that. There's going to be more innovation and between the machines, the two machines communicating with each other. So the one that cuts the trees and lays the logs out, we'll send information to the one that's going to go pick them up and get them to the roadside. So it knows where those logs are. Um, there's innovation where the end users let's say the sawmills or the plywood plants that are utilizing these trees and making products for society. They're going to get the information of what kinds of trees and what the lengths and diameters and volumes are. These trees that are going to be coming to them before they even see the tree show up at their operation so they can help them plan and manage well, do we have enough of a certain size and a certain length for a particular product, or should we switch and should we make a different size or lanes of product because our customers are needing something different. So we're going to give them, they're going to have more visibility of the, of the process and, and inventory management. Um, you know, they're going to, we're going to basically extend the manufacturing facility out into the forest. So they have this raw material information before they get it. Oh, there's a lot of innovation going on. There's a ton, you know, and as a, as a Forester, as a manager, um, things that are happening already is, um, I can pull up some information on my iPad and I can see where the machines are working and what they're producing and where they're on the landscape. And we're going to be communicating with our land owners that way as to where they are, and, and planning for how, how soon until they're done with their project and ready to move on to the next one or where we're at in the process. So, um, for mechanics, let's say the ability for mechanics to remotely log in on a computer, um, maybe even a state or two away and reach into that machine and maybe make some changes to it, to help the operators out, or maybe the machine is going to start sending back information like, um, a system is starting to fail. We see a hydraulic pump starting to fail. We can measure there's things we can measure to tell when a system may fail and send preventative help out before something actually fails. So our operators can stay, um, functioning and productive as wonderful. So connectivity, I think, connectivity in the forest. Um, you're you think you're out in the middle of nowhere and a lot of places we work don't even have cell phone coverage. Yes. But there's going to be a connectivity connection with these machines, with those of us that are maybe not with them that particular day, my office, you know, I have a physical office, but my office is really my pickup truck and using my iPad or a laptop I'm, I'm connecting with a lot of things that way. So, um, my most effective time is actually out in the field, um, and working with our foresters and landowners and working with the folks out in the field. So having this connectivity, I can't be everywhere all the time. It helps me be more productive as well.
George Davison:I understand. Wow. A lot of advancement. It seems like you're going to get more, uh, more efficiencies out in the field, a better, a better pattern upon how your let's say harvesting so that you can plan the future out a little better. Is that a fair way?
Matt Mattioda, Miller Timber Services:It is. And we're going to see advances in terms of, um, fuel efficiencies for equipment and maybe, um, systems that are driving those machines, you know, maybe hybrid type systems, just like we're seeing with vehicles. You know, it may not be all totally powered by an engine. It might be some electrical components in there. And so maybe some batteries in the machine as well, along with, uh, maybe a smaller engine that are going to help drive the machine. So we're going to be able to, um, reduce our fuel consumption and become more efficient because there are some inherent advantages of electrical drive systems, uh, over, you know, hydraulically driven systems. Yes. So we're going to, I think we're going to see some innovations in that regard as well.
George Davison:So we're going to see a Tesla machine out there that Tesla,
Matt Mattioda, Miller Timber Services:Tesla harvester.
George Davison:Oh, that was great. Well, lots of technology, we, we love hearing that because that means all these young people have a, you know, a new world that we're coming up in and they can build those stem and steam skills. There may be a home forum in forestry. So if you liked the outside world and, uh, but you also like tech, maybe those two will blend together here, uh, for use in there already
Matt Mattioda, Miller Timber Services:The jobs out there like that really we're folks are blending tech and forestry. Yep. There are, yeah. Just ask the folks at phones at Ponce. I mean, they're 75, 85 people in R and D there, and that's what they're doing there. They're taking tech to the woods,
George Davison:Tech to the woods, like the way that sounds. I like that. All right. So, uh, now you gave me a segue onto Ponsse. We hit the we're a little bit about that organization. Can we take for another moment and talk a little bit about, you know, how, you know, what company you started here, but let's get, we can talk about Ponsse for a minute. I'd love to know about who was this, that started this company. And is there, uh, a story here that might be worth sharing as it from an entrepreneurial perspective?
Matt Mattioda, Miller Timber Services:Yeah, there is. So entrepreneurialship, uh, happens globally, right? Um, there's entrepreneurs all over this world and you never know where they're going to come from, but they're out there. And so our story for Ponsse begins in a little village called Vieira Finland. Um, Wierema, Finland is a little small rural farming community, forestry community, um, kind of middle of Finland. And, uh, there's a gentleman by the name of NRE Vagrant and NRI. Um, after world war II entry, um, was trying to make a living for his family and tough environment, tough times and Finland after world war two. And, and Finland's mostly forested. So, and we of course worked in the forest. There's a lot of, uh, folks in the rural Finland do and harvesting trees and hauling trees out of the woods. At that point in time was a difficult, tedious task. You know, Finland's very cold in the winter. And, and, uh, so they was trying to harvest trees and, and enter, he got to thinking, and this innovative spirit of his he's, how can we do this better? Because before they're kind of using like maybe a small farm tractor and things like that to get these, you get these logs to market. And, uh, sometimes you put them on a sled and pull them with a horse and, you know, they're like, how can we do this differently? I'd like to, I kinda like to stay a little warmer than being out in the cold all winter long. So Henry helped develop, um, a couple of him and he had some friends in, uh, in a shop, a little shop in Verma. They, he developed, uh, a forwarder. What we now know as a forwarder and this forwarder was, um, really innovative because he had a cab on it and a crane on top of the cab. And you could reach over and pick up these logs and put on his back and driving to the roadside, which is much better than trying to drag them out with a tractor in the cold, or maybe on a sled with a horse. Right, right. Um, so in this little village of[inaudible], um, there was, uh, a dog that kind of hung around entry shopping. It wasn't particularly a very good-looking dog. It was kind of, um, kind of a, but, you know, and, but, but everybody in the village said, this is the, when you go on and go hunting, you take this dog with you because this dog may not look very good, but this dog is a tremendous hunting dog. It really, it really performs. And so when they're in the shop and they're building this machine, uh, you know, it wasn't really the most graceful looking machine, but it was really good at what it did. So they decided to name the machine and actually the company after the dog and the dog's name was Ponsse. So here we are 50 years later and, and the little dog in the village that wasn't good looking, but could really hunt is now the name of a very large multinational company.
George Davison:That is a great story. I've, I've never heard of a company being named after a ratty, looking at a dog.
Matt Mattioda, Miller Timber Services:Yeah. I began. Or you must have had a pretty good sense of humor too.
George Davison:Sure. Sounds like it. So he's an innovator with a sense of humor. That's a wonderful combination. It is.
Matt Mattioda, Miller Timber Services:It's good. It's good to, it's good to be, uh, the laugh at yourself to, right.
George Davison:All right. Well, that's a great story about, uh, you know, about Ponsse and maybe we could wrap up with two more questions that would speak directly to our audience, uh, in reference to, you know, young adults today, when you're doing your hiring and, uh, you know, what, what are the skillsets that you're looking for at your organization? And if you're there, you have quite a few different types of jobs there, but from the most basic, uh, perspective, if I'm a young person and I was listening to your advice today, uh, you know, what skill sets would you recommend to me?
Matt Mattioda, Miller Timber Services:So there are hard skillsets and soft skill sets, and the soft skill sets are almost more important than the hard skill sets. Um, and the soft skills being just, you know, showing up on time, doing, what's asked of you being a team player, um, being willing to do things outside of your normal work routine because they need to be done. Even if you're like, well, that's really not my job. Those are all important things. And as an innovator, um, there, there's obviously things that come up for us that we know we hire somebody, we don't plan, this is what you're going to do, but the path leads us here. And so we just need to do what needs to be done to get, to make it happen. So for, for young folks to have a willingness to, you know, be involved at via via team member, be a part of a team, be willing to, um, think things differently, be willing to approach new ideas and not, you know, go well, I don't think that's gonna work, but just let them, let them play out. See what happens. I think those soft skills you're mentioning the, do you believe that would apply across all different types of organizations out there? Yes. I just other other, uh, folks in our industry or other industries that we interact with and talk with, um, there is absolutely a need for these soft skills, um, from a lot of folks like a basic building block, isn't it? It is. Yeah. I mean, if you don't show up to work on time, if you, if you, if you don't want to be a team player interact positively with your coworkers, um, it's tough to tough to advance without the hard skills. So the hard skills, um, depending on what the job is we're doing, um, we have different hard skills and, and those are educational, like, um, scientific training. So for myself, you know, I have a forestry degree and a business minor. And so, uh, those hard skills I learned there, I apply into practicing forestry. We're kind of like foresters, like doctors, right? It's, we're always called practicing forestry. Like doctors call it practicing, practicing, being a doctor, right. Or practicing medicine. We never, we never really get it. Perfect. Um, so you have to be willing to understand and, and, and know that you never really get it right. Perfectly all the time, because there's so many variables, but we're always practicing where I was trying to get better. So would this, this culture of, um, constant, continuous improvement process is very much alive in our organization. And one of the things we do when you talk about the hard skills is we sat down as a management team and kind of, uh, you know, some, it was maybe a little difficult at first to do this. Uh, but now it's totally normal for us. We sat down and we made it on a whiteboard. We made a list of what each one of us on that, on that management team, what our strengths were and then our weaknesses wonderful. And what we looked at there was, we said, okay, all right, Matt, well, you've got some strengths over here and you got some weaknesses there. And we, we spoke about her own. And then our coworkers kind of chimed in what they thought, pardon me?
George Davison:One moment. You mean adults have weaknesses?
Matt Mattioda, Miller Timber Services:Yes, we do. And actually they're probably quite a bit more than you think.
George Davison:I'm just saying it's important. These young people don't, you know, they, they look at adults as though they can't do anything, you know, really in the wrong category sometimes, but we do, we do make mistakes. Don't we?
Matt Mattioda, Miller Timber Services:We do. We do. And, and, uh, it's okay if we own up to them. Yes, no. I think ownership of when you, when something doesn't go, right, or you don't do something, right. Or you let somebody down, I think owning that and owning it, being like admitting, admitting that, yeah, I'm sorry. I'll let you down there. It's my fault. I won't do that again is really important because I think it's important for personal growth to move forward and to gain respect and trust with your coworkers is to own it. You have to own, you have to own things. And that means there's good things you own. And sometimes there's things you own that aren't so good. Right. But then what you do is you move forward. Right? Exactly. We move forward. But we went through this process of identifying our strengths and weaknesses as a management team. And then you have to open yourself up and be a little vulnerable to that. Right. Cause um, I had one individual in our management team. He, he, he listed all the positive things, but didn't have a lot of there though. This is perfect. Right. That was all perfect. We all have, we have skills that are given to us and there's things we don't have. So what we decided to do is we knew as a group, what we needed to be successful. And so we, we figured out who has, what skill sets put them, where and where were we deficient as a, as a group, as a management team, what skills did we need? Where were we lacking? And we went out and found individuals that had those skills. So we, weren't trying to say, um, okay, Matt, well, you're not strong in this, but you are in this. So I want to try to make you stronger in something you're not really strong at, or doesn't come naturally to you. We're going to let you naturally do what, where you're strong. Your strength is. And then it doesn't feel like work. Right. And then, um, another coworker over here is really naturally strong at that. And it's no big deal. So, uh, I've got a coworker, he loves building spreadsheets. Right. He loves doing that kind of stuff. And so yeah, you mentioned something like that. And he said, oh yeah, no problem. Right. So we got to, when a coworker says, something is no problem. And then somebody else goes, oh, I really, I really don't like doing that. Give that job to somebody who says no problem. Cause they really have a lot of energy for it and passion for it. It's easy for them. So let's other coworker focus on the things that they say is no problem.
George Davison:We like to say that, uh, if you can find what you like and love, it's not work anymore. It's not. So it sounds like you're figuring out ways that your operation on how to get people, to find their likes and inspire them, go do it,
Matt Mattioda, Miller Timber Services:Follow your passions. I mean, if you follow, if you follow your passions, you know, they say you'll never work a day in your life. I'd say I'm kind of living proof of that. I love what I do. I can't believe I get paid to do what I do, but it's, it's fun. Um, I'm probably much more successful because I get to follow my passion and what I enjoy doing versus maybe doing something that, you know, I could do it, but I just didn't really enjoy it as much. Yes. So as a young person, I'd say, follow your passion. Your, your chances for success are going to be much higher and personal satisfaction in life are going to be a to higher.
George Davison:Right. So let's help you find that, find that, find
Matt Mattioda, Miller Timber Services:That passion.
George Davison:All right. So our last question, um, if you could share with our education leaders, how they may be able to, uh, better prepare our students for the jobs of the future, what would you, what would you mention to them, to those leaders?
Matt Mattioda, Miller Timber Services:So young folks that we've seen we've interviewed, and we, we get young folks working on the fire crews, or we hire young folks that start operating these machines and they can work up in the company. Um, one of the things that we have seen and maybe educators can help us with is those soft skills we were talking about earlier. Um, you know, those things need to be emphasized back in, back in school, you know, the importance to an employer for all those soft skills, you know, something as simple as, you know, showing up on time, being part of a team, you know, being willing to innovate, thinking about, you know, will not just go, well, that's not my, that's my job I need, you know, because everybody's got, I've worn different hats, um, you know, preparing folks for, um, the fact that the work environment is a dynamic environment where things are constantly changing and you need to be flexible and work around that. Um, you know, and, and, and things aren't always quite as, um, defined as one would maybe wanna on a hope, because I doesn't really work that way. Right. Um, you know, an educator to, to work with young folks and, and tell them that, you know, showing up to school on time, doing what you're asked to do, and you have deadlines to meet those things all really matter in the real world. When we have targets to meet clients, we have to take care of, um, let's say, let's say we get to, you know, the wildfire side of the company, you know, there's time is of the essence, right? So we have to make sure we show up on time and there's definitely chains of command to keep everybody safe. And, and we have to work on getting, communicating well, uh, to keep everybody safe and to get our job done. All those skills that can be taught in school and reinforced in school are very important when we get in the real world, doesn't matter what career path you're on. Every, every company, every team member needs to have those schools in order to be successful. So an emphasis of those
George Davison:Well said, man, well, I can't thank you enough for sharing all your insights and the wisdom that you've given to our students today. Um, I'm sure they'll pack some of this in and try to unwrap it and, uh, maybe help them with her
Matt Mattioda, Miller Timber Services:So career. Well, I wish all these students, the best of luck in life, and you'll find your passion, go follow it down. And the only thing really holding you back is between your ears. So, um, for your mind, go out and do what you need to do, make it happen. And we go
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