Announcer: 0:00

The following programming is sponsored by Marc J. Bernstein. The views expressed do not necessarily reflect the views of this station, its management, or Beasly Media Group. Entrepreneur, founder, author, and financial advisor Marc Bernstein helps high-performing business owners turn their visions into reality through its innovative work and the forward-focused form. Marc connects entrepreneurs to resources that fuel their success. Founders Forum is a radio show and podcast where entrepreneurs share their journeys, revealing the lessons they've learned and the stories behind their success. Join Marc and his guests for a mix of inspiration, valuable insights, and a little fun. Now, let's dive in.

Marc Bernstein: 0:40

Good morning, America. How are you? And when I say I say this every time I open a show and there's I've told the story about it, it's partly because of, not because of Good Morning Vietnam, which was a movie, or not because of some other things you've heard, but uh it's because of Good Morning America, how are you? The city of New Orleans, a song by Arlo Guthrie. My dog's name happens to be Arlo after Arlo Guthrie. And so I say, Good morning, America, good morning, Arlo. It's just a thing I do. But when I say good morning, America, I really mean it because not everyone in America is having a good day. And that's not meant to be a political statement, but that's just the way it is. And it had me thinking because I was reading this morning about the upcoming, and we're in the city of Philadelphia, the birthplace of the nation, which I think is going to be more or less the center of the big celebration next year, which is a semi-quin centennial. Thank you, Jim. Um, and uh we got to get used to that word, and uh it's gonna be a big celebration, yet there's a lot of things going on at the same time I was reading about that. I was reading about a just a couple other things that caught me in the news. You know, they're big subjects right now, and I was thinking about the founding of our nation. So, Jim, who's I'm gonna introduce you to in a minute, and I know each other a long time, but we are also both members of the Union League of Philadelphia. And so I'm happy to give the Union League a little plug. I was, and I think I've told you this, Jim, you know, uh 40 years ago I went in the Union League, and I'm never joining this place because it had because I had this image of it, it was actually the building was used in the moving trading places, you know. It wasn't the outside wasn't.

James F. Logue, Jr.: 2:28

No.

Marc Bernstein: 2:28

Well, he's a historian and he's a he's a uh docent there at the uh Right.

James F. Logue, Jr.: 2:32

It's the Fidelity Building.

Marc Bernstein: 2:33

Ah, it was the Fidelity Building, okay. Anyway, so the rumor was that. But anyway, I presented that image of stodgy old white men, you know, playing games and all that. And that's literally what I thought it was. Turns out it's something totally different than that, especially, and it's really about the principles of Abraham Lincoln and um, you know, love of country first. And, you know, I really do love this country. I'm I feel so fortunate to have been born here and all that, but I worry about it. And the articles that I read this morning have to do with worrying about how government and business, both of which I'm a big believer in, how they're intersecting and not always for the better. Um, and the two articles were one about this firing of um the late show host of CBS, uh Stephen Colbert, uh, and they say it's because of cost issues, but he turned it into it's you know, he made some comments about it, and it might be politically driven. The president certainly had threatened or had asked CBS to fire him. And when they talked about the cost savings, he says, yeah, well, 16 million of that, you know, was from paying him off in a lawsuit. So you got all that going on. And the other thing was um an article about Elon Musk, who was very politically active for the last year, who I happen to be a big admirer of in terms of his, you know, the his genius and and his um creation of SpaceX and Tesla and all the things he's done. But um he wants to create the American Party, a third party in America, which I think is a you know a noble idea, ideal. But you know, we've seen a lot of like a lot of changes in him politically over a short period of the last few years. It's hard to know what that really is about. So the question really is without getting political, we try to avoid politics and religion on the show, but what do you guys think about this whole government versus business thing and where it is and what needs to happen? So, Branden, I'll start with you. So this is Branden Moyer, who was uh on our last show of um Maid To Bee Clean and Buzz Brands, and your thoughts, and then we'll go to Jim and I'll introduce Jim.

Branden Moyer: 4:46

Yeah, I I definitely think um there needs to be a relationship between both because both of them they're they're not going away anytime soon. All right. It's what drives our our society, it's what builds our country, and uh I think they do checks and balances on each other. Um and it's super, super important to, you know, just like church and state, that there is a fine line. Um but i we need to respect both parts that there is a place in our society for them and we need to call them out when I think there's overreach as well. And it definitely looks political or it looks business motivated and they need to be called out, and I think um public opinion, you know, always has an opinion. You know, so it and that carries a a a deep weight in our uh society. Um so that's the good thing about democracy. Yeah, that is very true. Yeah, and social media, uh you know, it that is uh sort of the the way so uh our society can voice its opinion now and we didn't have that, you know, twenty years ago. So now that's changed, and because of technology like this that are businesses, it forces politics to sort of evolve itself and uh sort of become its own business entity, if you will. So it's interesting. They both take a sort of a mask of each other at some some point in their evolution.

Marc Bernstein: 6:20

Well said. Jim, your thoughts?

James F. Logue, Jr.: 6:22

Um I d I definitely think there needs to be a balance because uh if you let corporate greed, which has happened in the past and continues to happen, to get out of control, um it'll be all about the money and not about for the good of uh the United States and the people, et cetera. Um but I also think that government can be very effective in growing, especially manufacturer. My company is a manufacturing company. For instance, the national defense is an issue. The government could really be promoting that chips need to be made here, that video screens need to be made here. And um but uh that would just boost and turnaround manufacturing, but that would be a government role. So um I I just think if it's if government is not vindictive, if the government is is positive trying to make things work, I I think it's a good thing.

Marc Bernstein: 7:16

Well said. Uh that's a certainly a subject we ought to be thinking about these days. So let me introduce Jim F. Logue Jr., James F. Logue Jr., Jim Logue. And Jim and I have known each other for many years, and we are also, as I mentioned, Union League members. And Jim is the president and CEO of Therm Omega Tech Inc., uh, which provides engineering, design, machining, assembly, and testing of specialty temperature control valves and related products. The company also has a division that pop populates and test printed um division that populates and test prints circuit boards primarily for aerospace and military industries. And Thermo Mega Tech operates out of a 60,000 square foot facility located in Warminster, Warminster, Pennsylvania. You're welcome, Jim. Thanks. So, Jim, um there's a lot I want to talk to you about. I'm gonna try to get it all in. But first of all, you're not the you're not the traditional founder we have on the company. Right. What you what you were was somebody who bought a business but recreated it. So therefore, I think you qualify as a founder. And in fact, you've been honored for that recently. So let's tell the story and we'll get to that piece of it.

James F. Logue, Jr.: 8:29

Uh yeah. So uh Thermomegatech was founded by a gentleman by the name of Fred Perkle, and he was a um an engineer and an inventor. I think he had 27 patents to his name. Um and he started this company and uh uh used specialty wax technology valves, which is his specialty. And he he generally was a I would call him a tinker. He uh he loved hanging with our engineers, he loved hanging with our machinist, but he let his his wife and and his uh uh daughter and and son-in-law run the business. And the wife uh decided to divorce Fred, and Fred's attorney brought me in to see if I could help Fred, who owned 80% of the company.

Marc Bernstein: 9:11

Let's stop right there because I want to back up about you first. Sure. Your background that led you to that, and then we'll pick up right there.

James F. Logue, Jr.: 9:17

Uh yeah, so I I started my career as a uh CPA with Coopers and Liebrand four and a half years, and then I had a series of controllership and CEO, CFO positions. Uh and then uh in uh uh 2000 um I went into a consulting practice um with another gentleman that you know. Yeah and uh you know basically working with small businesses for debt restructure, for turnaround, uh for uh family transition, things like that. And so that was that was why this attorney thought that I might be able to help Fred. Uh it turned out that um the the family wasn't interested in working in that arrangement and we had to uh move our s remove our the family from the business, and I kind of got pulled into uh running the business, basically.

Marc Bernstein: 10:12

For Fred at that point.

James F. Logue, Jr.: 10:13

For Fred. So that was January of 10. And by uh May of that year, uh Fred and uh approached me about making a career change and becoming the COO of the company.

Marc Bernstein: 10:25

Right. And so you did that? I did that. And my understanding is you were you were really running micromanaging, as you mentioned.

James F. Logue, Jr.: 10:32

Yeah, the comp the company had a lot of good bones. It I mean, there were one wonderful things about the company. It it had proprietary products, we design and build. Um but it had a lot of it didn't it was not managed very well. Um it it had too much reliance on one industry, which was diesel locomotive engine freeze protection. About 76 percent of revenues came from from one source. And so diversification was an issue. Um and it and it just did not have a great culture. Right. And so I had a uh I was at a point in my career which I felt that I really had the tools that I could really do something with this company, and Fred basically gave me the reins to do what I thought needed to be done. And I took advantage of it.

Marc Bernstein: 11:18

Right. So you saw the opportunity, you grabbed it, and um and enjoyed it, I know, and then what happened?

James F. Logue, Jr.: 11:26

Um well so so so just to g to to act on or to to be a little more um uh about why I thought that I was ready for this, I I kind of had developed what I now call the the four pillars of thermal megatech. Right. And basically the the the very first pillar is the company needs to stay relevant. Okay. We need to be growing, we need to be uh knowing the markets, we need to be able to be looking for opportunities, we cannot be stagnant. The second pillar is uh customer centered. And I always tell tell my employees or when I had the chance to say, always put yourself in the position of the person on the other side. What do you want to hear? Okay, there's a problem, there's a there's something, you know, picking up the phone, things like that. So being very customer focused is there. Um the third pillar is employee engagement. I knew that I could not uh build the company the way I wanted to unless I had uh a culture where the employees uh were behind what we were trying to do. Why do we make the products we do? Do you understand that we serve a purpose here? And making sure that our emplo that our employees were dedicated and appreciated was an underlying uh factor. And then the last pillar is uh a commitment to continuous improvement. So I had I w was aware, I I read a book, I've been to a couple seminars on lean manufacturing, and I wanted to instill that into our company, which I did. And um and so uh putting those four pillars together kind of created uh the ideal company that I thought Thermobegatech should be. And so I started doing that.

Marc Bernstein: 13:15

We talked on the last show, our topic of the day had to do with strategy actually on the on the last show. And you are you were all about strategy. You were all about getting in the cave, stepping back, figuring out what needed to be done, and then and building culture.

James F. Logue, Jr.: 13:30

It's so lean manufacturing has to my opinion two factors. One is very tactical, right, you know, uh you know, one is a very important thing. Positioning of everything and just if eliminate, there's like seven different things, eliminating waste, da-da-da-da-da-da. But the other side of it is all culture. Yeah, culture of getting people to buy in that are that are moving in the same direction, and so the chimneys don't exist, and getting that type of uh freedom for everybody to be engaged, you're just gonna have a better company. And that was important to me. Right.

Marc Bernstein: 14:03

So what once you developed that strategy, how long did that take? That took years.

James F. Logue, Jr.: 14:07

Yeah, but uh it there was some some employees didn't make it. Right. Um we were about 41 employees back in 2010. Um and but once you know you get the small wins. I mean, Branden, you probably once you get the small wins that people start to trust, people start to build, and uh then it started to gain momentum.

Marc Bernstein: 14:31

I just want to point out, um, so you were 41 employees today, you're uh just under 150. Almost 150. And you're without going into the numbers, but you were in 2009 to today, you're almost four times the revenues you were um back then.

James F. Logue, Jr.: 14:47

Yeah, we were just under nine million in ten, and right now I think we're gonna be around thirty-five million. Maybe we might hit thirty-six. I don't know.

Marc Bernstein: 14:56

Very impressive. Yeah. Yeah. And you were just under, so I think you might make the four times, you know. Yeah, okay, okay, yeah. Do some math. Yeah, yeah. So um so and also you are a diversified company today.

James F. Logue, Jr.: 15:10

That was part of the staying relevant. You know, we were two centric on railroad. So now we're in four distinct industries, uh general industrial, freeze and skull protection valves. We're still in railroad. We've grown railroad. Okay. We're in passenger car, Amtrak is a big customer of ours. Um, but we're also we invented a commercial plumbing product, uh, which is a nice product uh and it patented. And uh and our I really wanted to grow in aerospace and defense. And we're we're nicely growing into those areas. So there's our diversification.

Marc Bernstein: 15:45

And we were talking before the show, you're literally in space now.

James F. Logue, Jr.: 15:48

Yes, yes. We are we have valves in space and a lot more going up.

Marc Bernstein: 15:53

Sounds like a TV show, valves in space. Right? So so Jim, what in doing all this, and I think I know the answer, but what what kind of challenges what what would you say your greatest challenges were?

James F. Logue, Jr.: 16:07

Uh uh always on the personal side, I would say, uh where the with the biggest challenges. Um getting good people, developing uh good people, uh being able to build a a uh management base, a um uh uh middle management that is effective. They're the type those those those things. So we we have now, I mean, like our compliance department, our IT department, um our quality control department. I mean, they were one person or no people back 15 years ago. And now we have just grown and grown and grown and and made um procurement. You know, we used everybody used to buy their own stuff way back in 2010. Now we've got four or five people in procurement. No, we have more than that because of electronics. And so um it's it's just you know building that infrastructure and and uh it never ends. It never ends.

Marc Bernstein: 17:06

With that, I think that's a great place to take a quick break. We'll be back in a minute on Founders Forum.

Announcer: 17:12

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Marc Bernstein: 18:06

We're back on Founders Forum with our guest today, Jim Logue, and we've got Branden Moyer in the studio. Um I wanted to ask you, and Branden may want to ask you a question, but before that, I wanted to ask you, we're talking about challenges, and you've obviously you had a lot of business experience coming into this, but you obviously have gained some strengths personally as a result of, you know, you you know, you build muscles through, you know, hardship and challenges. Uh what kind of um what kind of strengths would you say you've developed in order to lead the company into the future?

James F. Logue, Jr.: 18:36

Yeah, so uh as we we talked about the other day, is is that I'm probably on the the third uh morphosis of me as a manager uh with this company. Um when we s when I started the first couple of years, I was an extreme micromanager. I mean I ran the meetings, well there weren't any meetings before me, but we ran the meetings, took the notes, followed up with everybody, made sure things were getting done, very micromanagement. Then I started the second uh metamorphosis was um being able to build an executive team that I can lieutenants that I could get to to really do a lot of these functions. And um and the third would be mid-management, um get growing that. And so more and more of m me in the day-to-day is not a thing. Right. Uh right now I would say uh uh strategic and personnel, and maybe the third thing, company cheerleader, right, would probably be what I do now, which is perfect for where I want to be because in the next few years I want to bow out of some more of the day day-to-day and and let uh you know my management team continue to run this company the way that we've we've built it.

Marc Bernstein: 19:51

And focus only on your unique abilities which you've developed, which I think is the dream, the goal of every once.

James F. Logue, Jr.: 19:58

I mentioned I was in public accounting for a while. I learned two skills there that have never left me.

Marc Bernstein: 20:03

Yeah.

James F. Logue, Jr.: 20:03

Okay. The first one is time management. Yep. Okay. That because you you know, you you're you're running one job during the day, you're closing the other job out, and you know, you're studying for the CPA exam, you had the time management. But the other one was delegation. If you didn't take the time to delegate and train, you'll never build a base. You'll never build that support that you need. You can't do it all by yourself. And when so when we started hitting that, I would say maybe 14 million in revenue, I knew that I had to have other people doing things. And so that delegation really I brought into the company and it's it's paid off.

Marc Bernstein: 20:41

I'm going to take a try stab at something. I don't know if I'm right about this or not, but you were an accountant, you were a consultant primarily your whole career before you came in there. So obviously you had people skills, obviously you knew how to delegate, but I would imagine that your ability to go a little deeper and build culture and that kind of thing has been a strength that you've built through this company, I would think.

James F. Logue, Jr.: 21:02

Yeah, I mean, so you know, with through my career, uh uh primarily in public accounting, but also as a consult as a when my consulting company was going on, I saw a lot of businesses. I also, one of my big uh uh businesses, especially uh when the real estate uh crisis happened, was that banks would hire me to do turnaround management. And so I I I saw what good companies look like compared to companies and so I just it wasn't hard to say, yeah, uh effective companies, these are the attributes. Right. And so y I was able to learn uh the things not to do, learn the things that you really want to emphasize. Um and uh that's what I worked on, and that's that's kind of how I was at the right time when I knew what I wanted to do.

Marc Bernstein: 21:48

Uh Branden's gonna ask a question, but the only thing I w really want to say is that but I think you're you're you know building your levels of leadership to do that, you had to basically sharpen your axe in terms of your people skills and your one-on-one and all that, which I think is not as much as well.

James F. Logue, Jr.: 22:05

Communication, uh uh making sure they understood the vision. Yeah. Uh you know, where that's important.

Marc Bernstein: 22:15

So you were understand so you're developing some new sk some new skills or sharpening skills that you've had in the past.

James F. Logue, Jr.: 22:20

Yeah, I never this is all new.

Marc Bernstein: 22:22

Yeah, that's what that's what I wanted to get. Gotcha, Branden, you had?

Branden Moyer: 22:25

Yeah. So where do you see uh artificial intelligence play a role within the next three to five years? Great question.

James F. Logue, Jr.: 22:33

Yeah. Uh I would I would I I embrace it. Okay. I know everyone's scared that it's going to put job put people out of work, but I think it that so I'm using it now. Okay. I mean, our C and C machine okay, let me step back. Labor issues are our biggest challenge. Okay, finding, you know, assemblers, skilled operators, C and C machine operators, et cetera. Um that is a huge challenge for us. So how are what are we doing? Uh we're still trying to hire them, but we're now getting our machines to operate without operators. And so uh we are uh uh uh we call it lights out. Okay, we're operating all of our C and C machines now operate lights out. Okay. And that was culture change because the the machinists said, whoa, you know, I'll uh but they've they you've got to work with them and come around. Um but I could see so many ways that that AI can help your business. I mean, uh on the the hiring side, job descriptions, uh just makes you more efficient. Um there are skill sets like solderers for our electronics that more and more aren't gonna be around by and you're gonna have to automate. So I I think that you have to embrace it. I I I don't think you know I've heard all these things about about AI taking over. I think that's your choice if you want it to take over. But I think you have to I think you need to bring it in, and I think we've already done that. Our our um space valves uh are using cobots, you know. So I like it.

Branden Moyer: 24:12

All right, nice. Thank you.

Marc Bernstein: 24:14

Excellent. Um, Jim, looking forward, um which we love to do on the show is if we if this is July of 2028 and you and I are talking, yeah, and I say, Hey, how'd the last three years go in terms of your vision and in terms of uh what you're looking for, what would have to happen during that three-year period for you to say that was a great successful period for the business and personally, if you'd like to.

James F. Logue, Jr.: 24:35

Yeah, I would s I would say three things. Um one is that the continued growth of the company, I mean, I always wanted to take the company to 50 million. And uh I just thought that would be a great swan song to do that. I think I think it's right in our wheelhouse in the next uh three years to do that. Um the second thing would be that I really want to one of the areas where I really want to get better uh or the company I really w I want to work to get it better is an employee development. You know, you know, you've heard of stay interviews, getting people to stay, because good people are gonna be pilched. And you know, getting people to say, no, I I I want to work here, I want to grow through the company, I I have career, and this is gonna build our leaders as we move forward. You know, you have to you have to constantly look at your our aging managers uh and who's it who's the bench and make and so I want to get our a better bench over the next three years. And then the third one is personal, is that I I really I I I I have no plans on selling the company, but I want to be able to uh my my definition of of retirement is no personnel. I still want to be involved in the strategic side, I still want to be involved in the cheerleading side, which I love, uh, but just get the company that I can step back. You know, my wife and I love to travel. Um you know, just maybe move towards that. I'll be in my early 70s, so just moving into that would be my goal over the next three years. Play a little more golf, maybe? Maybe maybe break a hundred.

Marc Bernstein: 26:13

Love that one. Cool. Well, let me ask you, um speaking of which, um, you have some pretty interesting interests outside of work. Okay.

James F. Logue, Jr.: 26:24

Uh yeah. So uh I've always said uh had a love of h history. Um my father got me involved with that. And um so at the Union League, I'm a docent. I give tours of the Union League. And I'm seeing you at work there. I yes, you see me at work. And I also am a certified uh Philadelphia tour guide. So I I could do tours of the historic district. I do uh one of Washington Square, which um I really like that one because that's such an interesting place. I know where the bodies are buried.

Marc Bernstein: 26:56

I want to talk to you about that. We're gonna have we're gonna be having a wedding in Philadelphia, and I thought a nice thing would be for all of us to go on some kind of tour when everyone's gonna be. That would be great. That would be great. You'd be great.

James F. Logue, Jr.: 27:05

And the price is right. There you go.

Marc Bernstein: 27:08

I like that.

James F. Logue, Jr.: 27:08

Yeah. And the uh Yeah, so uh be but you know, being uh a tour guide is uh uh is uh a kind of a hobby for me.

Marc Bernstein: 27:17

Do you what do you are you a reader?

James F. Logue, Jr.: 27:19

Very much so.

Marc Bernstein: 27:20

And what are you what are you reading, or what is your favorite book that you would recommend to people?

James F. Logue, Jr.: 27:24

Well, believe it or not, I'm reading a book right now on the history of uh the transit system of Philadelphia. Ah.

Marc Bernstein: 27:31

Well, given your interest in history and your interest in trains in railroads, yes, and everything like that.

James F. Logue, Jr.: 27:39

Yeah. Um I I generally do more uh history. I I like historical fiction um as long as the history's right.

Marc Bernstein: 27:47

Excellent. Yeah, so hey, I think we're out of time. The music's running. But thanks for being here, Jim. Great show. Uh thank you, Branden, for being here. Thank you, TJ, Shane, everybody out there for engineering the show. See you next week on Founders Forum.

Announcer: 28:02

Join us again next week for another episode of Founders.