by Joe Romanowski
Chairman & CEO
Machinery Systems, Inc.

Bradshaw Medical, Inc. (www.bradshaw-medical.com), in Kenosha, WI is owned by Guy Bradshaw, Chairman & CEO.  Guy is an extremely bright, personable, humble 44 year old entrepreneur.  He and his wife, Diana, were born and raised in the Kenosha area, love the locale and are currently raising three children and a new business.

This company may have the shortest history of any I have interviewed for an Eyewatch article.  In a little over a year and a half, they already have forty employees, are the fast delivery leader in their industry, have two patents and eighteen pending.  They will do $8M in revenue their second year.  Sensational!  But, hold on to your seat! 

Guy explained, “When I was growing up and it was time for me to get a job, there were really only two big company choices — American Motors or Snap-on.  I chose Snap-on.”  Guy worked at Snap-on as a designer and as supervisor.  His last Snap-on position was as a sales representative in Los Angeles, CA.  In 1993, he was recruited by Racine area business legend, Dick Beere, to start a “medical company.”  Guy ran that business until they sold it in 2002. 

Why did Guy decide to start another company?  “I was too young to retire. There are only so many times you can cut the grass.  I was bored.  I had some ideas and knew a lot of great people.”

Guy describes his company as the industry leader in ratchet handles, torque limiting drivers and customer service for the spine instrument industry.  Keith Easter, President, and also identified as the company “quarterback” by Guy, told me that a customer just called him looking for quick delivery.  Their competitor had quoted fourteen weeks.  Bradshaw guaranteed the customer six day delivery.  Keith said, “Another thing we do around here is quote extremely fast.  Our customers get price and delivery in minutes to four hours.  Our competition typically takes two to three weeks.”  Keith went on to explain, “The ratchet drivers are the last things our OEMs think about.  So, we have the shortest window to deliver.  We decided to build an organization that would deliver faster than anyone.”

Guy further explained, “We couldn’t do what we do if we didn’t have the best people, and because we have been able to hand pick our staff we know we have the best at what they do.  As soon as word got out that we were starting up a new medical company, people we knew began dropping off their resume unsolicited.”  Keith added, “When I walked out at the end of my work day, I would find resumes stuck under my windshield wiper.”

Why do people want to work here?  “I think it’s because everyone knows where they stand.  Everyone is aware of everything. We are very open with our company information (as evidenced by the information board in the middle of the shop), our employees receive 10% of the profits of the company, and we have a 3% match to their 401k plan.  We pay 100% of all their health care benefits.  If someone has personal issues or problems, they are given as much space as they need to take care of them.  We maintain a family atmosphere.”

Machinery Systems considers Bradshaw Medical one of our top customers.  They buy only Mazak mills and turning centers, and they use our Blaser coolant and our tooling.  I couldn’t resist, I had to ask Guy why he buys Mazak.  “We had 30 of them at Beere (Beere Medical), now we have 7 and expect to buy more.  They are work horses.  They never break down and they make us money.  I think they’re built better than most and they’re a great price for the value that we get.”

After visiting several thousand manufacturing companies in my career, I still love to “feel” the culture of our customers.  At Bradshaw Medical I felt a sense of energy, urgency and confident determination.  People smile a lot and were interested who I was and why I was there. Everybody was ready and willing to talk about what they were doing and how they were doing it.  Bradshaw people respect and trust each other.  Guy is the head entrepreneur, but as I met the other members of his company, I could feel an entrepreneurial spirit in everyone. 

I asked Guy to describe his greatest obstacles when starting Bradshaw Medical.  He thought for awhile and then said, “Probably cash flow and then hiring a great core group.  Our start up growth was greater than we expected so we handled the cash flow issue pretty fast.  Since the top people in the industry were attracted to our start up, we were able to get the core group we were after.  Almost everyone took a pay cut to start with us, with a promise to catch up as we got going.  We’re now in the process of catching everyone up.”

I know that Bradshaw Medical will continue to grow at a very fast pace.  I asked Guy if he thought he would be able to maintain the shop floor entrepreneurial spirit.  “Absolutely, I will not tolerate a bureaucracy.  I have seen it before; it stifles innovation and really slows things down a lot.  I won’t have it.”

It was very important to Guy to introduce me to their key product innovator, and point out the huge role that Dr. Hua Gao, V.P. Research & Development, plays in their dynamic company.  It is his genius that has allowed their company to develop at least one new product every month.

I had one last question for Guy.  What is your primary role in the company?  “I am the coach and cheerleader (video link).  I make sure everyone understands our vision.  I make especially sure to share the excitement of our customers about our products and industry best service.  We have monthly meetings — or I might have a spontaneous one if I have some great news.  I want everyone to always feel good about what we are doing.”

Keith Easter (left), and Guy Bradshaw share as much information and excitement about their customers as possible.

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