00:00
Hi, and welcome to Power the Network. I'm Tim Drake. I lead our utility group here at CBM. I'm sitting in for our regular host, Tim Locker, today. On the show today, we have one of CBM's own, Mr. Tom Burke, who's a relatively new account manager for us here, but he has many decades of experience in the utility space. I'm interested in learning about Tom's experience with CBM, but also learning about his military experience as well as his experience in the utility space. And with that, we welcome in Mr. Tom Burke.
00:33
All right, Tom, well, welcome in. Thank you for coming in joining us today. I appreciate it. Yeah, absolutely. Glad to be here. So I talked a little bit about, uh you've been an account manager here with us now for a little bit over a year, and I want to talk about that. But I really want to talk about before all that is we have to go through the preface, right? We need to talk about your experience. I want to talk about your experience in the
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utility space specifically and we'll talk some military for those that don't know you. I want to cover that. ah So let's talk about number one. We're going to get to Iowa State too because I know that's where you graduated from, which is interesting. But let's talk about what you did as soon as you graduated from Iowa State and how you got into the utility industry in general. Yeah, so I was very fortunate. uh
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that I had a scholarship and an internship with a company here in Kansas City called Black & Veatch. And so I actually worked for them for one summer prior to going to work for them full time. oh I was married at the time I graduated and we had our first newborn actually before we graduated. So I had no hesitation in coming down and working. I think I graduated on, I don't know, was like a
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a Saturday ceremony and I think I was working the next Monday. Working Monday. I was a little bit hungry at that point. So baby on the way or baby? no, baby in hand. Baby in hand. Okay, so you graduated on Saturday, start work on Monday. Yeah. Right. So you work for Black & Veatch and what do you do specifically for them? Yeah, so I got started with our power division. And so at the time, Cold Fire power plants were being built mainly overseas.
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And so there just wasn't much movement in the US market. so I started just helping out with a plant. We're kind of finishing up a plant over in Taiwan and help with some of the minor stuff as we're just trying to finish up that job. My next opportunity came along and we had to work with a retrofit job out of Chicago. So we had a power plant that was built in the 1950s.
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Okay. And of course, a lot of regulatory requirements have come on board since then, right? So what they had done is added some air quality facilities, they had added some water treatment facilities, but they had used some of the equipment that had existed on that site since the 1930s. So here's a plant that was built in 1950s. It was number 19 on the site.
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So 18, 17, 16, 15, all of this had existed in this site. And so literally, they had to bring up some of this equipment that was just so antiquated, it was dangerous in some circumstances. And we got a chance to go in there, do the design work, and then I got a chance to go to the field. So I worked six months at the power plant with the union folks doing the labor.
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and get to see the installations. if you want to know, I will tell you I had an interesting first time going out to the field as an engineer. OK. Nothing we can probably talk about here, right? I will just say that the guy looked at me and said in a few nice words, who in the blankety blank did this design? Oh, and that was you? Oh, yeah. Yeah. And I just looked at him said,
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Yeah, I'd probably do that a little bit differently now that I know. So you were double-E right out of Iowa State. Yeah. Did you grow up in Iowa? I did. I'm farm kid from Eastern Iowa. Eastern Iowa. Okay. And we'll circle back to that, but I wasn't sure how that was never making sense to me. Yeah. So, okay. So you do Black & Veatch for five years, right? You work at Black & Veatch for five years, and then you choose to move over to an IOU. Yes.
04:42
Okay, and that's Kansas City Power and Light at the time? Correct. All right. So, and then Kansas City Power and Light eventually became Evergy, right? They're a merger with Weststar, and we'll talk about that. But you had six different positions at Kansas City Power and Light. Start us from your first one, and I know you progressed through. And if you don't know them all, just talk about your progression through Kansas City Power and Light, kind of how you started and why you moved from Black and Veatch over to Kansas City Power and Light. Yeah, so let's just start there. So,
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Literally one of the folks that I used to work with at Black & Veatch, he had left when I was over in China. m I was working on a power plan over there. We had gotten in on the design. When I came back, I found out that my coworker had went to work for an investor-owned utility up in Minnesota. I got a phone call that said, hey, Tom, I got a friend of mine that I used to work with at Black & Veatch. He's looking for an engineer at
05:39
for KCPL. So that's how I transitioned. It was literally just a phone call and a recommendation. And I uh thought I knew something about distribution after working with the power plant distribution side of things and utility distribution, so much different, right? So I started out in the engineering shop ah and just kind of working on some larger projects. But I was only doing that for
06:07
Gosh, I want to say about two years. And as you alluded to, I was in the National Guard for a long time. And I got a phone call that said, hey, we're getting shipped out soon. I did an overseas tour at that point. And when I came back, I knew that I really wanted to be more in the operational role. My National Guard time was really in the leadership positions, and I enjoy that.
06:37
So I came back and I got to run dispatch operations. And so I came from an environment that was 24-7, lots of activities happening in an overseas environment, right? To a 24-7 environment. Sure. With things that happened because frankly, you you have equipment that fails at all times of the day and night.
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weather events that come in and you have to do response to that, right? So it's about, you know, recognizing oh the events that happen, uh about reacting to that appropriately or planning ahead if you know an event is coming. And so really, really enjoyed that. But it's a demanding role. ah So I did that for about three years. And did you have then, and I don't know how long back then was, but did you have
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big screens that you're watching an entire distribution system on and you're watching switches. You probably didn't have that then, right? So what did that... did. And what did that look like? Yeah. But it was back when they didn't have all the LCD monitors. We generated enough heat from our new monitors that we installed that we had to get the HVAC redone in there. So, but we did. We had a lot of technology. And I think, you know, Case Appeal at the time,
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They were very progressive, right? They still are. We see that. You get to work with them every day now in your current role. ah But, ah you know, we had a lot of information and tools that we could use to really look at what was happening in large weather events and really how to use that information to build a forecast cruise that you need, what type of cruise, where they need to be located at, and so on.
08:34
All right. So, uh time away in the military, uh distribution operations, and then what was next? Well, so uh we went through our first uh merger at that point, and that was with Aquila. And so, as I was also going through this 24-7
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operating environment and I was doing military at the same time and we were doing planning to bring two organizations together. And so at the end of that when the two organizations came together, I was assigned the role to be a district manager in St. Joseph, Missouri. In St. Joe, Missouri. Yeah. Okay. So district manager followed by, didn't you do something in the underground space? Well,
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I've always been associated with the underground in different ways. uh kind of to answer your questions at two different points in my career with Everchase. So the first time as an engineer, one of those projects that I talked about was expanding our network down at the plaza area. So secondary voltage network to those that are familiar with those systems. uh So that's first time we had done an expansion of
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our secondary network in like decades. So very fascinating as an engineer to be involved with something like that, right? But then later on in my career, really one of the last roles that I had, we were replacing a lot of uh 1950s vintage cables that were out there. And some of them were failing, right? And then some of them we had tested. We had found out that they were
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They were about to fail. so for the last couple of years of my career, then I worked with several contractors that we had on site to replace that cable. Replace underground cable. OK. So all right. So you just went through 20 some odd years at Can't Say Power and Light, or B &V Can't Say Power and Light, that ultimately became Evergy. Yes. But, and we're going to switch gears here.
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Prior to all that, so you graduated in 1993 from Iowa State. Correct. But you joined the National Guard in 1981. That was definitely something at that point, you know, I really felt fortunate to do that. ah It's kind of interesting, I mean, from an education standpoint, I left high school thinking I'd never go to college. Okay, all right, so you're going some timeline. let me tie this together a little bit. I really wanted to go in.
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military. I had a lot of family that has served in the military. And uh some that have retired from the military as well. And so that was kind of where my passion was. I was frankly very young, very immature at that point in my life. And uh I wanted to go on active duty. I really hadn't prepared for any college whatsoever in high school.
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I grew up in a farming community. That's what we knew. ah That was kind of the environment that really I was around. So in discussions, ah really with my mom probably more than anybody, we end up doing a compromise because she wants me to go to school. I want to go down this path of active duty. And so I end up, I go into the Army Reserves at that point. I was enlisted. I started out as a private.
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OK? E1, right? Right. And so that really was really just a great segue for me in a couple of different ways. So one, I ended up going to community college, and I took courses for electronics. Electronics were just coming out at that point, really, the personal computers. So good timing from that standpoint. By the way, my mother signed me up for that.
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Okay, for Comp Sci or electronics? Because I really wasn't, again, I probably would have went down a different path, right? Okay. She had more of a vision at that point than I did, frankly. ah And at the same time with the military side of things, I really started having some mentors, right? That started, know, hey, what are you doing ah with, you know, your career from military standpoint? You know, I can remember having a conversation with
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one of the sergeants who said, you know, when are you going go back to school? And I'm like, what are you talking about? OK. You know, I already went through my medical. I was a medic. OK. Felt pretty good. I'd made it up to your first starting non-commissioned officer rank, E5. And I felt pretty good about that. But at the same time, that was kind of that first time of really somebody saying, hey,
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You don't just stop learning. You have to keep going, right? Right. So you had been in the military for how long before you decided to go to Iowa State? And what did that look like? you doing both full-time, essentially? Yeah, I've always done two jobs full-time, always. So I was in the Army Reserves. I went to school full-time, right? I worked full-time. I was still in the Reserves full-time. Well, you know.
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on a weekend basis, right? Right. I make the decision that like, ah I fix cop machines and fax machines, by the way, as a technician. Great role for a kid that again was in my position because I was in everything from a church that printed the Sunday bulletins to a...
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A classified environment where somebody stood over my shoulder while I was repairing the machine because I couldn't see any of the scraps of paper. oh And actually even going into the prison to their education center. this post, this is post-Juco. This is post-Juco. You've got your electronics degree of some sort and you're a copy or repair person.
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You're going into all these unusual environments. So I get a lot of exposure to a lot of different companies, businesses, and through that process, through the mentoring of the military, I say, this is not what I'm going to do as I towards retirement. So I quit. I got married actually the week before, Marcy and I, yeah, married the week before I started school. And so at that point,
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wanted to go for electrical engineering, and I went through ROTC at the same time. So again, always doing two different roles, right? At that point, I could actually do my ROTC the first two years of my school. It's a little bit different back then. And so I was considered prior service because of my military experience. So I had to take a break from Iowa State.
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to go full time and do my job training, which was a field artillery officer. And then back to school, finish up school, always doing the weekend duty, always doing training events. And yeah, I've done that up until really just about five years ago. So how long were you away from school and doing your field artillery officer training? Yeah, so total training.
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I think Marcy and I figured it up that in our first five years of marriage, I had been gone a full 12 months away from her through just various trainings. So you're gone 20 % of the time? Yeah. You should probably, you probably mastered that over the years, Stay away 20 % of the time because, know, relationship building, right? mean, she's going to have a certain expectation, right? Right.
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So let's continue down this military path. And by the way, thank you for your service and happy Veterans Day. appreciate all the support from everyone. And as you know, I'm not the only veteran in our organization too. Right. Right. And we have another number of manufacturers and their folks, know, folks that work for the manufacturers that have served and probably some that still do. Right? Anyway, our Chris Kurtz also works with CBM, right? And you used to work with Chris and then for Chris at one point.
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And I believe you were working for Chris when you had one of your overseas deployments in military. And I don't know if that was Baghdad or was that the Horn of Africa? That was the Horn of Africa. Okay. So that was your first major deployment? Second. Second. First was going to Iraq. First was going to Iraq. So let's start with Iraq then. oh Tell me about that. You're in the National Guard. Tell me about going over to Iraq, what that was like and why you were there. Yeah. uh
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So I went with what they called at that point OIF2. So it wasn't the initial going into Baghdad, right? First presence, right? So our troops have been there for 12 months. We found out that we were going to be there a little bit longer in 12 months, right? And what year was this? So this would have been 2003. So, okay. All right. So I
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Post 9-11, I just wanted to make sure it wasn't like 2001. No, but it was really interesting. So here's what happened. So I'm working at KCPL at the time, right? I got a phone call that sounds something like this. Hey, Tom, I just found out we're going to Iraq. And uh watch your emails because I got about 100 other phone calls I got to make. We'll have a conference call tonight. Got to go. Click.
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That was Thursday before Thanksgiving. eh So I go through Thanksgiving. On the Tuesday after Thanksgiving, I'm on active duty. That's how quick. So it really went quick. things afterwards, deployments for a lot of other folks went a lot more planned out. But that's just where it was at that point in time.
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You know, at that point, I obviously gave notice to Case Appaled. They were very good, you know, about working with me and said, no problem. You know, go do what you need to do. Go serve your country and we'll have something for you when you get back, right? Fantastic. yeah, so we, to kind of set the structure, there were about 350 of us on that group that deployed.
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um I was number three in the organization. you had the battalion commander, you had an executive officer, and I was what they called the plans and training officer. So I'm kind of number three. And I jumped on board, like I said, on the Tuesday after Thanksgiving just because at that point, myself and our little team that we had really had to prepare the training for us. Nothing was really developed at that point in time. uh
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worked with some other folks on active duty to say, hey, we need to train on these different items to go overseas. so, again, just with myself, we had all a little bit of leave around Christmas. I think we had like a, I don't know, I don't remember if it was uh a 48-hour pass or something, but it was pretty short, okay. uh
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And when I returned from that pass, um then myself and two others did the leap forward over to Kuwait before the rest of the team of the 350 came over. So what we did is we were the jump team to go into Kuwait, start to get everything organized to be able to receive the rest of the folks coming in, make sure we're lining up, you know.
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where we're going to house, right? And that sort of thing. And we had, I think we had about a hundred pieces of what we call rolling stock. So that was anything from a truck to a trailer that we were bringing over. And we had to get all that uh equipment from Kansas, from our National Guard locations. We had to put it on rails, then it ships to Texas and from Texas it takes a boat over and...
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We actually end up having the entire team over in Kuwait for, gosh, a few weeks before the ship lands. Ship doesn't move near as fast as a plane load of troops can get there, right? So that whole time, things were really just kind of evolving in the situation over there. So we're starting to talk about IEDs and the threat from improvised explosive devices.
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We had folks that worked for Alltech. You're, of course, familiar with them. And so these guys could do anything. They made friends over there where we're waiting in Kuwait to get our vehicles. They actually made armor for our aluminum skin vehicles. And by the time the vehicles were there, they literally had everything, so almost like assembly line. We got those.
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vehicles and put the armor just skin in the sides of it with armor so that we could go up. mean, these guys just did an incredible job. So we were in Kuwait for about 30 days, I think it was, before actually going up into Baghdad. We knew that part of our mission when we got deployed was going to be serving the
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Visitors Bureau is what they call it. Okay, so every congressional member that comes in senator congressman ah Every general officer that comes in a lot of folks are coming in for briefings, right? How's things going? What do we need to do to support you guys? What do we need to change back in the states as we're preparing people to come over or maybe it's just the the folks that were higher up in the leadership for
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what was normally there in country, right? They have to get around to all these different places throughout Iraq. And so part of the team, there was about 90 folks that were assigned to do anything from convoy securities to get these folks around. Sometimes they would have helicopters that they would take from point A to point B within the country.
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And then there was the rest of us. So my battalion commander uh had that role, working with the DIVs, distinguished visitors, uh and the executive officer. So 350 minus 90 folks, I became the leader of that group. uh
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Most of our missions were just force protection, is what they call it. So if you think of, I tell people, if you think of a prison, you have security officers and they're looking inside. Well, we had good guys in our camps, not bad guys, and we're looking outward, not inward. And we also had folks that did mobile security, meaning they had trucks and they would escort.
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folks from, again, from point A to point B. so, yeah, I was the leader of that group for the entire time. And then, like I said, we had some folks that did some special missions outside of that as well. So that was probably, like you said, 2003, 2004, right? So how long were you gone then? Yeah, I left in 2003 right at the tail end, right? I spent a month in Kuwait and I got back.
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in 2005. So I spent all of 2004 and I want to say oh a month and half, two months of 2005 deployed as well. Yeah. Did you do anything power related when you were there? You know, related to your your stay-side job? Well, remember before when I was saying, you know, you get
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people from all different kinds of walks of life that come into the National Guard. Here's these guys that do assembly work and welding who did that piece of it. We're in Kuwait. And uh the only thing I can say related to power is our power went out that fed all these tents that we were in. So you're in tents. That was going Yeah, we were in tents.
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We need to have everything still by computers, right? We got all our laptops and so we still have to communicate. And of course, something happens when the power goes out. And I see one of my troops, he's got our patch on and I'm like, hey, what are you doing in that box? It was electrical like junction box and say, and said, do you know what you're doing? Cause I'm thinking safety, Utility world.
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We want to make sure everybody's safe. Highest priority out there. Turns out he works for Casey Pail. I did not know that. I mean, we went with 350 folks. ah And I had only been assigned to the organization, I want to say, about three months prior. So I really hadn't gotten to know everyone. So I meet a guy that works for the same company as me. We're both in Kuwait. He worked for one of the power plants.
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So that was the only thing. story. Yeah. All right. And your power over there, was it off a generator or did you tie in the Kuwait's grid somehow? Yeah. So when we were there, um we were assigned to Baghdad. So that's where we were. We were in the city. We were in some locations, some camps that we established right around the airport facility.
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At that point, diesel generators ran everything and that was all contracted out for that entity to provide power to us.
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28:47
So you come back to Kansas City Parallel Light at the time. You've got a new role, right? You took on a new role and that's when you did distribution operations. Right. 24-7 environment to 24-7 environment. So how long until you're redeployed to the Horn of Africa? Yeah, so first off, there were some schools I had to do in between. So I had a little bit, not quite as long.
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Right? Some leave of absences in there. Maybe a month or two here and there. Military related. Military related, yeah. So 2009, I found out that I was going to be in a battalion command position. And I've also found out that, oh, by the way, they're going to deploy it too. OK.
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Well, I guess I'm deployed with them. So about 2010, I was deployed over in Africa. And we had an established camp over there. The US military had a number of different functions. So there was some counterterrorism that was happening in Africa itself.
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um And we had a camp, we did something very similar. We provided force protection for the camp. I tell folks, if you think about TSA and screening, when you go into an airport and get on to the plane, we did a lot of that work. We had a lot of locals that would come on to base. They would provide a lot of the support functions for us. It was employment for them. It provided services for us.
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So we did all that work, but we also had some folks that were stationed in other countries, neighboring countries. And so they, again, would do anything from force protection. um We had an army organization that drilled wells. I had no idea such thing existed before going over. Water wells. So they were providing water wells for local farmers. But why they're doing their job?
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we provided protection for them. We also had civil affairs units that could do anything from building schools and medical centers to maybe doing vaccinations uh for sheep for their herds. Yeah, they have veterinarians as well. And again, what do we do? We provide their escort for that.
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There's also, you know, most folks are familiar with like UN troops, right? Where the blue helmets, you've seen them at different points in their life deployed. So Africa has uh an equivalent to that, that they have for their continent. And so we did training for their troops to help them do stabilization missions in Somalia. oh
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Fascinating. We kind of all over the place. Africa is so large, you could take three of the continental US sizes and fit it in to that continent. So I had folks that were clear on the far side in a country called Liberia that, again, they were doing training to help make them a professional military.
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They had gone through a civil war about 10 years prior to that. Wow. Yeah. The whole military thing is fascinating to me. I know it has nothing to with CBN, but it does have to do with the people that serve in our military, which I'm very grateful for. I was never really taught about the military. And what I mean by that is I did have one brother. So I have six brothers and six sisters. But one of my older brothers did go into the military. But I'm pretty sure... um
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Maybe, I'm pretty sure he was told to go there. uh anyway, ended up serving for some time. Anyway, another story, but I just admire people that serve and have served in the military. And I'm so appreciative. Thank you. So thank you again for that. And now let's talk. this will be the last I ask you about your military, which I know you're proud of and I'm proud of as well.
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But let's talk about, you earned several medals throughout the year. So you earned the Legion of Merit, the Bronze Star, and the Meritorious Service Medal. And you mentioned it earlier, but you're also trained to be a field medic, so you received the Expert Field Medical Badge. Can you tell us a little bit about each of those and uh Legion of Merit and Bronze Star and Meritorious Service?
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First off, always caveat when we talk about something like this that, know, all those awards were really for meritorious service, right? They weren't for valor. So when we talk about the Bronze Star, there are two categories. are those that were for valor, some type of heroic type actions, right? And then those that were serving in a capacity that's considered really above and beyond, right?
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So in my case, the Bronze Star came from the fact that ah I had a very large team, right? Right. know, so 260 folks. ah And for my rank at that point, you know, was considered something above and beyond, right, for that. So very, very proud of that. But at same time, you know, I really had to put in
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perspective compared to a lot of other veterans who have earned it in a valor way. So the other awards, whether it's Legion of Merit, again, just that's kind of a lifetime award, I would say. When I went to retiring, I was looking at 38 years of service, the deployments that you do, and just all the things that you have to do to maintain a second career.
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Honestly, think one of the probably the most award I'm most proud of, I would say, is that expert field medical badge. so whenever you're doing things in the military, it's really a balance between physical endurance, mental endurance, right? Knowledge, leadership in there. And so, you know, that...
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I tell people, said, look, I'm really not that good. I tried three times before I got that. Oh, really? Yeah. And so I think if I remember the stats right, about 60 % of the folks will fail just off the initial written test. You just drop, right? And then you go through a bunch of physical tests that you do. uh
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And then you'll drop usually about another 20%.
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So in those skill sets, it could be anything from like land navigation, for example. ah Maybe you're doing treatments, obviously, you know, not real, but you're going through, you know, different folks that are playing that role of the patient and, you know, a sucking chest wound, which basically means a hole in the cavity, and how you go through the proper treatments of that.
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You know, really preparing for that and having the, I guess, endurance to do that, to fail, to do it again, to fail and do it again. Right. Good. Yeah. So that was pretty cool. You should be proud of it. Yeah. Now, if I were to have an issue...
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Right. Now that you've failed three times, I'd probably be okay. Right. You should probably know that I went to the other side. Right. I went from medical, which is helping people, to the other side. Well, okay. So exceptional military career, great career at Kansas City Power and Light, Aquila, Evergy.
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And so through that process, I know you've been involved in managing, like you said, just in military there was 260, but I know that if you had St. Joe and your other roles, you managed people. Yes. Give me your viewpoint on management and leadership, and those all tie together, right? What's your view on managing people? Yeah, I think you really have to look at this across a broad spectrum.
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right? Because when you first start out in leadership, you're really, sometimes in leadership, it's the military calls it, uh you know, technical and then tactical, and then strategic. So technical, I was field artillery, I could tell you everything about how weather conditions affected, you know, how we're going to send munitions down range, right?
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That was the engineering part, right? And you go from that to a tactical environment where you now start looking at how do you employ those assets wisely. And then you get into, finally, the leadership, the strategic side, and you're really thinking about much more than just that. You're thinking about the whole picture and how you encompass all the different tools that you have. And I think when we... um
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Look at leadership. You really start out that way. You start out as a supervisor, right? And you're managing a direct team where you can have conversations with folks. You're really very much in touch with what's going on on a daily basis, right? ah And then you get into more where you graduate a little bit step back and you become a leader of leaders. That becomes a little bit different challenge, right? And then if you get into the strategic part of it,
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You're really just trying to build those leaders up. You're always trying to educate those folks really on the next step. so from a philosophy standpoint, there's lots that we could go into, right? But always thinking that for me, I always said everything's done through people. If it's process, still done through people. If you implement a system.
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Still people would have to implement that and operate that. So the bullseye of the dark board is people. You have outlined processes or systems or whatever standard operating procedures. You really have to focus in on the people part of it. And uh I'd have conversations. The military's
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very much known, like you said, you start at a rank, you can't get to stay there, right? You don't have that choice. You're going to move on or you're going to move out. Up or out, huh? Okay. And so, you know, some of this I could apply the military leadership with the civilian leadership, right? The military is much about developing people, right? And you want to, I always told folks,
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then on the civilian side, I'm thrilled that you're thrilled with your current role, right? You do a great job with it. Also understand you may not have that same feeling a year or two from now, maybe five years from now. Look, part of my role is to help, you know, provide you the opportunities to position yourself to take a different role in the future, right? Whether that's just moving to a different part of the business.
41:26
And we've given you some exposure. We've introduced you to some other folks that are, you know, in this other side, right, part of the business, or it's actually moving up in the business. So probably the most important part is really developing people. Developing the people, whether that's breadth, right, or vertical, right? Absolutely. So do you promote somebody based on what they've done or based on what they can do? Well, it's supposed to be the latter.
41:55
But there's both sides of that coin. You didn't demonstrate your potential for the future without doing well with where you are. But if people didn't see, if they only saw that you could do well in that current position, that really doesn't mean we should promote you. We want folks that are going to be effective in their new roles as well.
42:21
I stole that question from Brett Cooper, I'm pretty sure, who's also another military friend of yours, right? A CBM friend. CBM friend. CBM friend and another retired colonel, right? Right. Yeah. So you wrote an article, I'm very curious about this side of the utility, and I hope the listeners are too, but you wrote an article for, and I found it in the Electric Light and Power magazine back in 2010. You wrote an article about storm valuation and response. Yes.
42:49
I read the article. was well written. Bill Hurd again. You mentioned Bill at time. I think Bill has moved on since then. But yes. Anyway, what I found interesting were two things that I had questions. I'm interested in the call out back then and today. And then I also want you to explain to me how this whole system works that when there's an ice storm in Texas or whatever that is, an ice storm in Kansas or a hurricane in Florida, how in the world do all the utilities and these contractors work together
43:19
Who knows what's going on in this? It looks like just a madhouse when you look at it. Or an organized chaos, right? I'm sure it's not, right? So tell me about the call out then and now. And then let's talk about how utilities and contractors support when we have disasters. Yeah, so one of the opportunities, as Bill Hurdigan used to always say, in other words, it's a challenge that I'm going to give you, but he called it an opportunity,
43:45
So we had a system where literally our workforce that worked 24 seven with the dispatchers, right? They saw incoming events of power outage or, you know, could be a small single house, right? Power outage or whatever. They worked to get a first responder out there. We called them troublemen, right? So we have a group of troublemen that are always working around the clock that can
44:13
respond to emergencies. There's a group that's available. Available. Okay. Right. And so that if you want beyond that group, because it was something larger in scale and we're not talking as you know, a big scale, but maybe a transformer has to be replaced. Right. So we got a group of houses that are out. So now we need to call in a crew. Right. So we're to have to bring a big bucket and we're going to have to have a foreman. We're going to have to have a couple of qualified linemen.
44:42
journeyman to go up and do that. The old method was somebody picked up, went down to the roster, know, dialed up somebody, hey Fred, are you available to come in? I've got this job, here's what I got. Hang up, okay, pick up the phone, dial again, next guy down. Very slow process, right? And so the opportunity that I was given is we need to implement an automated call out system.
45:09
We have all the folks' information in the system. We have their name. We know what job skills that they have, right? What their... You know, are they a journeyman? Are they a foreman? You know? oh And so ah we worked with a company called Arcos, which now within the utility space is very common. oh Lots of organizations. I want to say we may have been...
45:37
around the eighth, 10th company to implement them. so, while I'm doing National Guard and I'm running a 24-7 environment, I work with a group within another sub team within KCPL to implement that system. uh, does it work?
46:00
It works fabulous, right? So I mean, you download all the data in there and then you push one button and magically pretty much. Yeah. So it goes something like this. The dispatcher now, instead of making all these calls manually, they record say, hey, I've got an ality jet 10th and main. Right. Here's the situation. We know the transformer needs to be replaced. We need a foreman and we need to journeyman. So he would record that.
46:29
So then he basically says, I want one foreman, I want two journeymen. He puts that into the system. He hits the button and he walks away. He's back to now, whatever else is coming up new in the system that he needs his time and attention on, right? So on a small scale, that works great, right? That works great within somebody's accepting it and then next thing you know, he's got his team dispatched. Okay. Yep. Yep. So then when you get into a larger scale event,
46:59
You know, a lot of times utilities have contractors that are working for them, right? So they, you have your baseline workforce, right? We always want that baseline workforce, but sometimes you're doing large projects and you need to scale up. And so you have contractors that you're using for that, right? I don't want to hire up to that level if I'm not going to need it, you know, consistently. Right. you know, if you have something that's larger,
47:28
an event, maybe it's a small thunderstorm that rolls through, right? uh And the heavy winds and the winds knock down lines. Maybe I've used this system that we implemented, Arcos, right? And we've got everybody that works for the company on. So now we want to get contractors on board, right? Our contractors that work for us as a normal. So literally, I have folks that are, they've designated as points of contact. We call them up.
47:58
We say, here's what we need. Bring us, here's how we want you to organize. Here's where we want you to first show up at. And here's going to be the person you're going to talk to when you get here. So that's kind of the next level that you have. And then you get into the third level, which is I've used up all the resources I have from an employee standpoint. I've used up all the resources that I have from my
48:26
contractors that I normally hire on a daily basis and I still need help, right? So all the utilities have gotten together and they've set up formal ways to go about this process. And so you can call other utilities that are gonna come in or you can call other contractors that are coming in or sometimes you're doing both, right? And we saw lots of things change after 9-11.
48:55
And that is one of them, right, where processes got a lot more formalized after 9-11 on having responses. And most people can remember like Hurricane Sandy, know, big event that hit the East Coast out there. And I will tell you, there were folks that I've been told were from the White House that were monitoring those calls and the preparation for it. So...
49:21
It truly has taken on such a great importance of electricity in our business, right? And having that available that, you know, we want to have uh not only formal plans to work that, but be very proactive about that approach. So I'm sure average-year careers go out and help other utilities and vice versa. Yes. contractors.
49:45
Who pays, I mean, somebody's got to pay for this, right? So the affected, the impacted area of that utility then pays the folks for Evergy who then turn around and their folks get paid, right? Yeah, so whoever's the host utility, I mean, we're doing a service for that host utility, right? So um as you know, part of my career, I worked for a contractor, right, after I left Evergy. So we had to pay our folks that were working for us, right? And then we're waiting for reimbursement.
50:14
to get paid as an organization, right? So we keep operating. But yeah, mean, ultimately we're doing the service for the host utility, right? And the customers are affected who are ultimately, that's hopefully built into their rates that it's not that large of an event that it's just covered by normal budgets that are allocated towards storm events. Okay. It's fascinating to me how
50:44
quickly these utilities and contractors mobilize when there's an event. Right? And oftentimes they're there. much faster and faster over the years. I've seen it. Fascinating. Okay. So I know I've just got a couple more things. I really think I have four, but we'll make them quick. Tell me about, I remember when I first talked to you and you said, Tim, I'm involved in this organization called MEA. Yes. And I'm like, okay, I've heard about MEA. I don't know a thing about MEA.
51:14
But along with your military service, while you're doing military, while you're working, then you also volunteered to serve on a committee with MEA. So tell me Midwest Energy Alliance. Association. Association. Okay, MEA. that, well, I'll just let you. Tell me about MEA and what kind of their objective is. I'm not sure I'm going to do them full justice in describing them, but I'll say that I think there's kind of a...
51:42
their parts consist of one, bringing utilities from the Midwest together so that they can share best practices, right? Okay. They do that for gas. They do that for electric. All right. Okay. They also do educational piece, which is they actually have trainers on board that they will go out and they will teach leadership. Leadership courses, frontline leadership training. So, you know, we have this best practices that come together.
52:12
We have this leadership that they will do and then they also have other events that they will host in addition to this. let me go into that. For example, they have a procurement groups that come together and they share their best practices. So it's not just electric operations, right? We've got folks at work either as alignment or now they, you know, supervise those operational teams.
52:40
but it's also procurement, it's also uh women's leadership. They have a track for that. And a friend of mine got me involved that I used to work with and said, hey, we really could use some leadership in this particular subcommittee. So it was reliability. And uh they have, I want to say, seven or eight different groups that they have. But like dispatch operations is a group. Substations is a group.
53:09
Underground as a group overhead safety and training reliability metering and hopefully I've captured all of them. So that's where I started out. And so I just helped them, you know, kind of come up with some ideas that we think would be received really well by the group on how to approach reliability. Right. And I do that for a year and then we rotate out chairs, right. Who leads the team.
53:40
Second year on the chair. Okay, so now we're bringing together the same thing, trying to get ready for our annual event and what are all the different topics that we're going to have presentations on. I go to their leadership team and say, look, I want this to be received in the right way, but I really think there are some opportunities that we're missing. And I present some ideas.
54:07
on the ways that we could increase our attendance, right? Increase our participation on how we do things. That gets me then to the steering committee. Okay. So the steering committee uh is over like all these different groups that I mentioned, metering, training, safety, all that. And we set up the framework for the annual conference. And this year, I'm fortunate enough to...
54:35
be the chair of that group. Well, it's one of the few things that I hear, particularly in the uh IOU that I call on, is, you know, O &M budgets are slashed, right? Everything needs to be capital. But people from the surrounding utilities are still going MEA, right? I mean, they are not giving up on that. And I think, I'm not, I'm sure everything is great, but best practices to be able to share that with a
55:05
utility across the way. I mean, it's invaluable. Well, it's valuable information for everybody. And it's also about networking, right? Because maybe we're not going to cover the topic that you're most interested in. But hey, I got to introduce to Tim why I was there. And I'm going to give Tim a call when we get back home. And we're going to just have an offline discussion so that we can figure out. Because we both work in, say, the underground group, right? Right.
55:34
So yeah, there's a lot of value there. And they've structured. You know, I think every organization really got challenged during COVID, right? You tried to do this remotely, and then afterwards, you're trying to build back up, you know, the interest and then like you said, budgets are challenging to attend. So, MEA has been very proactive in their approach to try and generate, you know, attendance. And so, they've offered
56:03
setups to different utilities where you can bring members for free. So you kind of get a baseline of what you're going to pay for and then you can bring a lot more folks. And so with that, I think our attendance is up over 300, I want to say now this last year, which is almost getting back to pre-COVID in the really peak years.
56:29
You know, and it's cyclic too. I mean, you think about this from a leadership standpoint, you know, I want vendors to help, you know, to come to participate, right, to show their goods. They want attendees. Right. That's what they need. So this has to be a two-way thing, right? And so, uh MEA has been really good about making sure that we're getting our attendance up and now we're driving towards getting...
56:57
you know, even greater participation from our vendors as well. Well, I think it's fantastic organization. I'm glad you're involved. I appreciate it. I'm glad I get to learn more about it. So let's switch over to CBM. And now I've got to ask you. So you've been an account manager here for a little over a year. You started last August. Yes. Right? Yeah. And I'm very curious because this is a sales role, right? I mean, we call it account management, but our job is to generate
57:26
revenue for our manufacturers, but most importantly, really to help our customers, right? And that's been the way that I've always sold is I need to solve a problem for them. So as you know, you've been in sales your entire life, whether you like it or not. because as soon as you wanted to become a leader, you become a salesperson. I mean, let's face it, right? that's a... a truth to that. There is a truth to that. I'm reading Masters of the Air right now and they talk about the people with the vision.
57:56
for the Air Force, right, in World War II. And they were visionaries that had to sell leadership on why we should fight this World War II, the Second World War, the way that we did. And it all comes out of the B-17 story. uh But anyway, whether you like it or not, you've been in sales your entire life. But tell me about your year at CBM and kind of what's been surprising to you, what you like, what you don't like. I mean, maybe you don't want to get into that, but let's just talk about your time at CBM for a little bit. Well, you know, first off, I think it's been great.
58:24
I can't tell you that I felt that way every day, Right. Some days I feel like, man, I'm just doing great things, right? And some days I'm like, gosh darn it. I need to do some things differently. You you say I've been in sales all my life. I feel like I'm reinventing myself. OK, that's fantastic. um
58:48
Part of my reason why I could have retired before now. Sure. Right? um And unfortunately from that same point, I just didn't feel like mentally I was ready. Like when we talk about all the different people that have work uh or work in the power industry, I really feel like that's almost like the military. I mean, you've got dedicated folks, right? They're technically super competent, right, in their skill set.
59:17
It's about leadership at the same time. So being associated with folks that are now in much more than just one utility, but several different organizations out there, whether it's a municipality, a cooperative, or investor-owned utility, ah for me, that brings the spot on my face, right? So ah I enjoy that piece of it. I enjoy getting to be around different folks.
59:47
still in the industry. I think honestly one of the most challenging things that I initially had to work with is I knew about products. We use products all the time, right? Right. Okay. Can I tell you why we use that product? No. Should I now in my role? Probably should, right? Right. So I think, you know, learning the products in depth.
01:00:16
and learning why there's a benefit to doing something one way or another, or that our manufacturer has an advantage that frankly others don't have. That was probably the initial thing that I had in my learning. Now, CBM, as you know, we all attended a sales development, a sales leadership week.
01:00:43
And so that was probably really good for me. I don't feel like that is a natural thing to me. um But I think there are a lot of stereotypes out there associated with folks that are not in sales about sales folks, really. And you really nailed it. It's really about helping folks solve a problem. And it's about, from my role, helping to
01:01:10
have those conversations to learn what those are and to draw that out of the folks that we're having conversations with. They may not know that there's a better way or a better piece of equipment out there, right? So part of ours is education, but it's generating that two-way dialogue with our customers. And so again, part of the reward has been when I've had a customer thank me, right?
01:01:37
whether that was for getting them some help on doing something, providing some information, maybe getting them some parts, some quotes that we want. we've got some manufacturers out there that are just so good about responding, right? Responding timely. So I think I shared with you a story that we had a manufacturer, PLP, that we
01:02:06
sold some substation connectors to an organization. And so we had to get some information back from the factory about installation. And we had that within 24 hours. Right? That's a thankful customer. Well, know, sales is, I really enjoy it. been in it, I say my whole life, I think since I was 16 selling oil changes on the driveway of an Amaco.
01:02:36
But I really enjoyed it. I'm glad you're on the team. think COVID has changed our role a little bit. And I was talking with Marla, who's our president, and another one of our guys, Jamie. And sometimes getting in to see people is difficult. Getting people to see you is difficult. And I think that's a little bit of post-COVID thing, right? think people became... think that's a part of it. Right. There's another part there too, right?
01:03:03
Which is, we see a lot of organizations really slim down. Oh, right. True. Right? They're pulled a lot of different directions. So I think, again, when you can provide a service, but you can provide that efficiently, you know you're not going to waste their time. Right. You better bring value each time you sit down with them, right? For the customer and for our manufacturers. So anyway, like I said, I'm glad to have you on the team. Thank you.
01:03:28
The thing that we both have in common, and I think we've said it here, is that we enjoy helping our customers, right? Absolutely. If we can help them solve problems. And that's our job. Building relationships is also fun. But anyhow, like I said, I'm glad to have you on the team. And thank you again for your military service. Well, first off, thanks for having me. I appreciate the recognition from the service standpoint.
01:03:54
it wouldn't be appropriate if I didn't recognize all the different people that I served with, right? And some that are no longer with us, right? So great to be with CBM. It's great to work with customers. It's great to be still in this industry, right? And providing value for our customers. Right on. Okay, Tom. Thanks again. Appreciate you coming in. You bet. All right. Bye now.
01:04:20
Thank you, Tom, for coming in today. We appreciate it. And remember, if you need help with a project or you're looking for a manufacturer's in the utility, commercial, industrial, or communication space, look no further than CBM. You can reach us at cbmrep.com. Remember to like, subscribe, and repost the Power of the Network podcast. And with that, we thank you for joining us on Power of the Network.
