A fascinating conversation about Tony Thelen’s journey in manufacturing, starting as a coop student in Deere’s Waterloo Works, to management, sales and marketing and finally leadership in their precision ag facility, developing technology for autonomous ag equipment. Precision ag gets to the millimeter detection of weeds to spray ONLY the weeds. The saving on herbicide costs, environmental benefit and crop productivity has been exponentially improved!
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He talks about innovation and how to fail well by improved communication with the customer. Fail fast, but fail often. . . Putting those failures together in an elegant way is the trick. How to get the feedback faster and put it together in an elegant way is the key. This was improved drastically by embracing their agile processes in product development. Engineers having direct access to the farmers was most important in the process. Deere’s deference to teamwork and the handshake between the farmers and the company to solve problems together made all the difference in leaving things better than when you came.
Retiring from Deere last year after 35 years, Tony is now passionate about helping other leaders navigate through their journey. Helping others achieve their goals while maintaining some semblance of balance is his goal. In his book, “Am I doing this Right?,” Tony and his co-authors Jeffrey Kappen and Mathew Mitchell leverage the collective experiences of hundreds of professionals and have become the “ultimate early career desk reference.” His consulting firm, The River, is an amazing resource for individuals and organizations to build plans for professional growth that lead to success and fulfillment. For more information, reach out to Tony at Tony@therivercoach.org visit their website at www.therivercoach.org.