CHL Systems: Michael Giagnacova IndustrialSage

Michael Giagnacova of CHL Systems shares on building relationships in business; and seeing challenges as new opportunities.

 



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Danny:

- Well hello and welcome to the IndustrialSage Executive Series. I am joined by Mike Giagnacova, the CEO for CHL Systems. Mike, thank you so much for joining me today on the Executive Series.

Mike:

- Oh, thanks for having me. I appreciate it.

Danny:

- Alright, well I'm excited to get into today's episode. For those who aren't familiar with CHL Systems, could you give me a high-level, like who you guys are and what you do?

Mike:

- Yeah, so we design and build solutions that move, make, and pack the products that feed our country. That's the short clip of what we're involved with.

Danny:

- Excellent, alright, well I'm excited to get into that a little bit more as I suspect you guys—there's a lot that’s been going on in that industry. We talk about food and packaging and just moving all that, so a lot of things that have been going on. But before we get into all of that, this is one of my favorite parts of the episode where we get to learn more about you. We get to learn about Mike. So Mike, tell me; take me back. How did you get into this industry? How did you get into this space?

Mike:

- Yeah, so I was kind of born into it. My father owned a company that designed and built custom machinery, one-off machines. You would come to us; you would have a need for something that you'd have to custom design and build. So at a young age I started working as a machinist, working for my dad in that industry. Then I went to night school, Drexel University, for industrial engineering and worked during the day for my father. Then when I graduated there, I went to the University of Pennsylvania. We are just outside of Philadelphia. The Wharton School had a management program, so I took that. I went through that, that application. Then from there, worked in various manufacturing jobs learning how to make products, learning how to market and sell them. Those early days of being a machinist really have, I've carried them all the way through my career. Understanding manufacturing has been a huge part of my career.

Danny:

- Yeah, absolutely. What I think is interesting is that you said your dad owned that business, right? He was creating machines, and you’ve got a lot of, I'm guessing, some entrepreneurial genes or certainly some learnings from seeing your father doing that. Talk to me a little bit about that. Is that accurate?

Mike:

- Yeah, it's pretty accurate. My dad was—he's still alive—a true inventor, a great engineer. He went to Drexel as well, so we have a family history of Drexel grads. He was a true inventor of custom technology. You just couldn't help but be a part of that. That's who we were, and so some of the technology that we would use was cutting-edge. No challenge was too big, so to your entrepreneurial thing. The greater the challenge, the more exciting it was. And so yeah, I have a piece of that in me, too; not as much as my dad, but enough to get me into trouble.

Danny:

- Yeah, that's always the rub right there. Enough to get you into trouble. Well let's talk about some of that trouble. What trouble has that gotten you into?

Mike:

- Yeah, so I'm 59. I've been in this industry since I was a teenager, and been in different management positions pretty much all my life. There's a lot of learning. You're dealing with a lot of people. How you work with people, how you learn from them, there's always an experience to learn. It builds who you are.