Josh Schultz - Scaling CaneKast - Ep.144

Think Like an Owner

My guest on this episode is Josh Schultz, current president CaneKast and previously co-founder of the Chess Group. Josh has partnered with Reg Zeller, a former podcast guest from Episode 81 and CaneKast founder, to acquire and streamline foundries across the country. But as Josh and I talked about in the episode, that is far from their only ambition.

Josh and I talk about what has changed the most in the year since joining CaneKast, how he approaches scaling, organizations, and teams, documenting processes, change management, and finding a complementary partner to work with.

Josh is also a great friend and a person I deeply admire. He's incredibly intelligent, process driven, and creative, and I always love talking with him. Please enjoy our conversation.

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Links:

Josh on Twitter

JoshuaSchultz.com

CaneKast

Reg Zeller on Twitter

The SMB Ops show

Topics:

(2:58) - What would you say are the biggest changes you’ve seen in your business in the past 10 months?

(4:45) - Do you feel like there’s an order of operations for changing or tracking different things?

(7:00) - How did you go about understanding pricing and mold counts?

(10:47) - Do you believe you’re creating a competitive advantage beyond pricing that contributes to growing sales?

(12:40) - What’s the most challenging piece to improving service?

(14:45) - How much do you think making internal data more transparent has impacted your efforts?

(19:46) - How do you get someone with deep domain expertise to share and document knowledge?

(20:51) - What is the goal for building multiple solo companies within CaneKast?

(23:42) - What are some business models that are inspiring this move?

(25:05) - The importance of building a competitive advantage

(27:15) - Do you feel your competitive advantage will allow you to acquire other foundries?

(29:02) - Do you think there’s correct pacing to change?

(30:45) - How do you approach setting a vision for the company?

(34:49) - How do you view what types of aspects of the business will change next?

(36:51) - Where do you think you’ll feel the strain as you start acquiring companies?

(38:34) - How do you go about learning a new topic?

(42:10) - How have you used media and podcasting to build relationships?

(43:47) - What advice do you have for finding a good partner?

(46:00) - How did you think about your role at CaneKast?

(48:18) - Have you always had this Entrepreneurial Impatience?

(50:43) - Where do you feel like you need to be patient?

(54:56) - Evolving the CEO role to pure people & executive team management

(59:26) - What’s a strongly held belief you’ve changed your mind on?

(1:00:09) - What’s the best business you’ve ever seen?

(1:03:24) - What’s next for you in manufacturing after foundries?