BY BRAD SCHELLER
Brad Scheller met recently with Todd Burt, president of Diba Industries, a Danbury-based provider of clinical and scientific fluid handling systems worldwide. Diba”™s parent company, Halma P.L.C., is publicly traded.
How did you get your start in business?
“My first job out of college was working for a father of a friend of mine selling payroll systems. It was terrible. I went to a job interview one day that happened to be with a guy I played racquetball with every night. He hired me as a customer service representative for a metals distributor. He taught me everything I know about business. He put me through graduate school to get my MBA. I worked there for 11 years.”
What were some of the lessons you took from him?
“The one that stands out the most was the passion and enthusiasm that he had dealing with customers. Joe was the ultimate salesperson. He walked in, figured out what really got a customer jazzed up and jumped on it.”
How would you describe Diba”™s mission?
“Our mission is to create solutions that improve and lengthen people”™s lives. We make parts that, by themselves, are just plastic and steel. But the design of them, the shape of them, their use, their importance and repeatability are a critical part of diagnosing and analyzing human health.”
Can you think of an “as good as it gets” moment for your company?
“Four years ago we got involved with a medical device manufacturer to produce a vertebroplasty bone injections system. Patients who were in chronic pain walked away from the procedure without pain. It was eye-opening to think a little plastic piece of tube that we designed and built could be used to make someone”™s life that much better.”
Tell me a little about the vision you have of where you want to take your company.
“Six years ago Diba was a small business with 60 employees based in the U.S. Today we work on a global basis. We”™ve vertically integrated our process. Now, 90 percent of what we make is from parts that we produce, modified or that use our IT. My vision is that this continues and we add new products, new markets and new places to continue work that improves people”™s lives.”
How would you describe the culture you”™ve created?
“Our culture is what I call a W-I-T culture, a ”˜whatever-it-takes”™ culture. We have folks that take responsibility for what they see in front of them, whether it”™s their responsibility or not. They do whatever it takes to please the customer.”
How do you go about hiring good people?
“We use a process called Top Grading. It involves a variety of interviews, aptitude and personality tests and a constant review of existing employees. We also make sure that we support our employees in the best way. There is a lot of involvement upfront, but we have experienced a lower turnover than the industry norm.”
What motivates and engages your employees?
“We involve our employees in activities, counsels and groups outside of their regular responsibilities. We have development and training programs through Halma that allow people to grow and take on new responsibilities.”
Does the success of this method show up in any other way?
“Sometimes it”™s hard to connect the dots. One thing our company is proud of is our high quality metrics. We”™ve driven the responsibility out of the quality department into production and people in the business. Pushing that down into the organization and still maintaining a very high level of quality shows that people care.”
What message do you send about failure?
“Failure is encouraged. We recently had a discrepancy report contest. The department with the most discrepancy reports won. We placed the importance on catching problems. Through the collection of these reports we were able to look at trends and figure out how our activity could be improved.”
How has your leadership style evolved?
“I probably got a little bit less patient, more demanding. I have higher expectations and am willing to make decisions quicker because of it.”
What does that look like?
“We talk about celebrating failure, but that only goes so far. There”™s a point where that isn”™t acceptable anymore and that we”™re held accountable to our actions. If things aren”™t working, I”™m able to make a change, and am not afraid to do it quickly.”
Brad Scheller is president of Wilton-based Executive Forums of Connecticut, dedicated to helping CEOs and top executives improve their business and themselves through participation in CEO peer advisory groups, executive coaching and best-practice workshops. Brad can be reached at bscheller@executiveforumsct.com or 203-563-0628.
