I have spent my entire career in the food industry, so Bühler was known to me. Prior to Bühler, I spent time with two of our current key accounts, Cargill, and Pillsbury (now part of General Mills). At Cargill, I had some cool moments like being part of a President’s Gold Award Winning Team. Since I was a Bühler customer, you could say that I have always represented the voice of the customer within Bühler. And I do my best to continue to view Bühler through the eyes of our customers. I was also interested in the job itself, a new role at Bühler, at the time: building a Marketing Team for North America.
I think the most interesting experience I’ve had so far is how the Bühler culture has evolved during my time here. When I first started with Bühler, we were closed, inward looking and hyper focused on risk. We were very reluctant to partner or even share, what we saw as internal “know-how,” with anyone outside Bühler. One might say we were even a bit paranoid. We “played not to lose.” We were still an innovative company, but we were afraid of being taken advantage of by “outsiders”. Today, although we do still see pockets of this old mindset, we are much more open, collaborative, willing to listen, learn, and benchmark with leaders outside of Bühler. We engage with the broader innovation ecosystem. We demonstrate thought leadership on challenges we face as an industry and as part of a global community.
We’ve found our larger purpose and are engaged in making the world a better place. We play more to win. This change in mindset is a major reason I have chosen to stay with Bühler.
I became an alum of the first Master of Bühler Management (MBM) class, which allowed me to travel to Colombia, South Africa, France, and Switzerland as part of the course work. Incidentally, I met Urs Gujan for the first time during our trip to Colombia. Urs is now our CFO for the Americas, my friend, and teammate. As a member of the North American leadership team, over the past couple of years we have developed a level of trust and camaraderie that I have never experienced before.
My favorite superhero is Thor. He is the connection I make to my Viking heritage, the love for my family, and the cold climate I’ve come to love out here in Minneapolis.
Brian Williams,
Vice President Marketing & Business Development, Bühler North America
I describe my team is a bunch of superheroes, the real-life Avengers! Each one is incredible in their own right, but, together, we are unstoppable. Seriously, the North American Marketing Team is small, only 13 people, serving all 26 businesses, from Panama to Mexico, the US to Canada. We have “A” players in every position and my team is stacked.
It has not always been this way. I recall dealing with a product launch that went very wrong, due to significant design issues, which we were not prepared, organizationally, to support. This resulted in truly angry customers, some of whom threatened lawsuits. In the end, we had to accept the return of several machines and our reputation in the market sustained damage that we are still working to overcome.
We tackled it by doing right by customers. We stood by our product, even if it meant we incurred significant cost and, ultimately, lost money. In some cases, we lost customers. In others, customers came back to us due to the hard-won goodwill and trust we established in which we handled an exceedingly demanding situation. Now, we truly have a rare and powerful team spirit that I am grateful to be a part of.
It has taken a decade plus of work, step by step proving our value to the business, to get here, but I am tremendously proud of the Marketing Team we have in North America. We do much more than just promotional work.
Amidst this pandemic, “normal” days really don’t exist, which I take as an opportunity to grow the horizon of my team. The digital renaissance came quick, but our team has been focused on growing and flourishing within the pandemic-related challenges. Communication has been key to our success. A team event from the past, that I recall fondly, was an outing to the giant “extreme sandbox” park in Minnesota, equipped with fully operational heavy excavating equipment. My team had a blast, and it is events like these that I look forward to most again, especially as more people in the US are becoming vaccinated, and we’re allowed to meet under safe circumstances again. Patience has been quite essential. Being in a leadership role, I must listen to how my team is feeling, and react accordingly by ensuring their safety and general well-being.
I know I’ve had a good day when I can celebrate “wins,” big and small, with my team. Seeing them grow, both as a person and a professional, and being successful, is also how I define my own success.
I know I’ve had a good day when I can celebrate “wins”, big and small, with my team.
Brian Williams,
Vice President Marketing & Business Development, Bühler North America
Personally, I have faced challenges along the way. Most notably, my fight with cancer in 2010, which, obviously, I won.
For me, Bühler means family, innovation, pride, longevity and overcoming failures to grow. It is a family-owned company, with a family-like culture. Innovation is, and always has been, Bühler’s hallmark. We take immense pride in that and in our market leadership. Considering what we’ve all experienced over the last year, think about everything this company has lived through over 160 years.
I dream about becoming the company’s first Chief Marketing Officer (CMO). I know that position does not exist, but when I first started with Bühler North America, the Marketing Manager position did not exist, nor did my current position, so it has happened before! But seriously, if I end up finishing my career with Bühler in my current role, I will be happy because I will always find another mountain to climb. As long as I’m climbing that mountain with no top, I’m growing; I’m happy and fulfilled.
I could imagine moving for my job, but my family is always my top priority, so they would have to come with the package.
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