Overview
The Industrial Revolution, the invention of the automobile, the internet, and the cellphone all changed our world in terms of connectivity. However, according to Ryne DeBoer, IoT was the most impactful. Watch Dana and Ryne discuss the megatrends in connectivity that occurred over the centuries.
Covering more than just the automotive industry, this Morey Moment shows that IoT technology can enrich lives. Ryne points out that 30% of food doesn’t make it from farm to fork, but with smart, connected solutions, we have the ability to solve this problem.
Watch the full video to understand how Ryne plans to lead Morey’s growth and prove that anything is possible.
Video Transcript
Dana Morey Hi, I’m Dana. And this is a Morey Moment with our president, Ryan DeBoer.
Dana Morey Ryne, thank you so much for taking time right now to have a conversation.
Ryne DeBoer Yeah, absolutely. It’s my pleasure.
Dana Morey So one of the things that I think you articulate better than anyone else is your view of the world in a macro sense.
Dana Morey When you’re looking at the various markets and parsing those out, you’ve kind of come up with a, I think, a really tight package of understanding that.
Dana Morey Would you talk about that for a second?
Ryne DeBoer Yes, I’d love to. So I think the thing that comes to my mind when you ask me that question is. It’s 2022.
Ryne DeBoer And over the course of the last 5 to 10 centuries, there’s been a few megatrends, right?
Ryne DeBoer And so the most famous or most world changing was the Industrial Revolution.
Ryne DeBoer And when you look at the Industrial Revolution and the impact it had on the planet, you almost could make a pre and post industrial revolution timeframe.
Ryne DeBoer And I think about the times that we live in now. You can do the same thing with the pre and post automobile, the pre and post internet,.
Ryne DeBoer And that was the internet of people and email and connecting people that used to be able to go golfing in the afternoon. Now they are known where they are.
Ryne DeBoer And then cell phones and what that’s done. But the Internet of Things, connecting things to the Internet is, I believe, more transformative than all of the above.
Ryne DeBoer And if you’re lucky enough to have one of those mega trends happen in your life and you happen to be able to have a purpose, a vision, values and an offering that can capitalize on that megatrend, some real magic can happen.
Ryne DeBoer And so you look at Morey and given that we go back to 1934 and World War Two environment.
Ryne DeBoer First, projects that your grandfather was working on was radio test sets for the Signal Corps and and service to World War Two effort.
Ryne DeBoer Wireless has been a part of our history going all the way back to then.
Ryne DeBoer And if you look at a megatrend and be able to ride that wave, I think our purpose of enriching people’s lives is pretty easy to achieve.
Dana Morey Right on. So we’ve got this phrase that we use all of the time, which is smart, connected solution.
Dana Morey So somebody sitting out there going, What do you mean? What is a smart, connected solution?
Ryne DeBoer So what I believe the smart, connected solution is, is that, say, a piece of technology that’s trying to emulate or replace what human beings were born with.
Ryne DeBoer And human beings were born with the ability to sense things. You know, we have our five senses, some think six.
Ryne DeBoer We have our our brain and their ability to think and our ability to be creative like our Creator, which is, I think the essence of humanity is the difference that makes a difference is we’re able to be creative.
Ryne DeBoer So you have the smarts. And so smarts, sensors, and connectivity. So smart connected solutions require smarts, sensors and connectivity.
Ryne DeBoer And so a sensor could be a light detection, a gas detection, movement, all kinds of different things.
Ryne DeBoer And the smarts or the compute power in this case in a piece of electronics is a microprocessor or some kind of a high powered processor. It really doesn’t matter. It’s it’s the smarts part.
Ryne DeBoer It’s the smart connected solution requires the ability to compute something. So you’re drawing on information out in the world and then you’re drawing meaningful insights from those things that you’re sensing.
Ryne DeBoer And that connectivity or smart connect, that is pretty easy. It’s you’re either communicating something locally or your community communicating something faraway so far away or wide area network is stuff that we understand.
Ryne DeBoer We all have cell phones. Every person on the planet has got a cell phone basically. The local area stuff, that’s easy, too, because we all use Bluetooth devices and Wi-Fi in our homes or in the office or out in the world every day of the week.
Ryne DeBoer So a smart, connected solution is transformative because it can be put anywhere.
Ryne DeBoer And whether it’s big or small, what I think is so cool about it is it emulates what human beings do, and we can expand our scope exponentially to places that you just can never get to before.
Dana Morey So talk a little bit about, I’d love to hear you talk about how smart, connected solutions are examples of smart, connected solutions that genuinely enrich people’s lives.
Ryne DeBoer So some of the things that come to mind that we can relate to and that a number that I’ve heard is 30% of food does not make it from farm to fork.
Ryne DeBoer So if you think about one of the most pivotal things in a world of inflation and geopolitical issues and folks that are really struggling to put food on the table.
Ryne DeBoer A smart, connected solution that lives in a field or a farm that ensures that the yield is really good and then is harvested at the right moment, gathered and stored and then shipped to the right location seamlessly.
Ryne DeBoer If that 30% could turn into 10% or that 10% could turn into 5%, or that 1% turned into fractions of a percent as a result of all different kinds of IoT devices that are ensuring
Ryne DeBoer that those those those food items or those animals or milk or eggs or any of the stuff that really moves the needle.
Ryne DeBoer Imagine if we had 30% fallout on our manufacturing floor. What would we do? Would we accept that.
Dana Morey We wouldn’t accept it and we couldn’t survive.
Ryne DeBoer And so in the case of 30% of food does not make it from farm to fork, a smart connected solution, in my opinion, could exponentially enrich people’s lives by solving that.
Dana Morey Yeah, that is a great, great answer.
Dana Morey So, Ryne something else that I love, the way that you articulate, and that is the the vision that we have as a company.
Dana Morey We’ve got we put some big numbers out there, and I’d love for you to talk about that vision.
Ryne DeBoer Yeah. So, you know the journey a few years back when we really wanted to put together a comprehensive purpose/ vision / values, ten year plan, that we could rally the whole company around,.
Ryne DeBoer along with aligning everyone in the company to measurable and goals. Not just yearly but quarterly. They all cascade down from a bigger North Star.
Ryne DeBoer And as it said, without vision, the people perish.
Dana Morey Yeah.
Ryne DeBoer And without clarity of purpose. As it’s been said by famous guys like Simon Sinek, the greatest companies on the planet know why they exist.
Ryne DeBoer We put together a vision for the company, which is to be known as the best industrial IoTbrand on the planet. And why would we want to lead a company that’s not the best place to work?
Ryne DeBoer And we plan a growth number or a growth goal of 500 million, which at this point I think may be even too small.
Dana Morey I agree.
Ryne DeBoer But you also have to be realistic enough for people that don’t have all the data points from a guy like me who’s been on the road for years and has been out in the market and has been able to really see the art of the possible.
Ryne DeBoer We’ve we’ve put that vision out there because it’s important to have growth. And I also think we both agree with this.
Ryne DeBoer It’s really impact the planet for good, you have to have influence and a scope that matters.
Dana Morey Yes.
Ryne DeBoer And so, you know, we want to we really do believe in our purpose, which is enriching people’s lives.
Ryne DeBoer We know that the megatrend of IoT and smart, connected solutions is big enough to outlive me for sure, and probably my kids.
Ryne DeBoer I mean, I just think that the world is going to become increasingly digital as time goes by.
Ryne DeBoer And being in that kind of a megatrend puts us in a position to last another 100 years or hundreds of years.
Ryne DeBoer And beyond that, I think it puts us in a position to sell into our purpose, which is enriching people’s lives, our fellow coworkers, our employees, our partners, our customers, our vendors.
Ryne DeBoer And then with the profits that we’re able to generate, be able to give back.
Dana Morey Ryne, my favorite quote and it goes back to geometry in high school,.
Dana Morey Mr. Holmes had a sign above his chalkboard that said “The man who says it can’t be done is likely to be interrupted by somebody doing it. “
Ryne DeBoer Yep, that’s good truth.
Dana Morey And I think that we’re living in a world where there’s so much negativity and so much naysaying, and you have this phrase, which is the art of the possible.
Dana Morey And I just I would love for you to talk about how you see the world, because I know you really well and you see the world through a lens of what’s possible.
Ryne DeBoer And you talk about that.
Ryne DeBoer So, I mean, there’s so many things that went through my mind when you said, I think and being a little kid and watching superheroes or thinking about being Batman or Bruce Wayne or whatever.
Ryne DeBoer I mean, that sounds so cheesy when I say it, but you play the tape forward and I get to see some things that happened in my life that just growing up in Chicago, in America,.
Ryne DeBoer You just can’t really believe it. So good examples are: The Internet becoming a thing.
Dana Morey Yeah.
Ryne DeBoer And what happens as a result of the Internet becoming a thing.
Ryne DeBoer And then social networks becoming a thing and going, wait a minute, people are going to willingly put themselves on the Internet.
Ryne DeBoer That’s weird. And thinking about what that does and then watching Steve Jobs. Do what he did and pull together the magic that is iTunes and an iPod and an iPhone and an iPad.
Ryne DeBoer And now, you know, theoretically. And IWatch.
Ryne DeBoer And then, you know, there’s I could give 100 other versions of that. But most recently, Elon Musk. Real life Tony Stark.
Ryne DeBoer And go, wow, man, that guy’s doing that. And going back to when I was a little kid. I always just dreamed of doing really crazy stuff.
Ryne DeBoer And when you watch others do it and, maybe I had a little bit of a strange childhood or upbringing that put me in a unique position to just believe that anything was possible, and then spend time with other people in the world that are extremely bright and talented and you start to go, They’re not all that bright.
Ryne DeBoer . Maybe I can do that too. And I talk about Andy Stanley a lot, which if you ever sees this video, Andy (Thumbs up) but he talks. He told the story once.
Ryne DeBoer He’s a great storyteller. He said, Have you ever been at a friend’s house that’s rich? And I don’t mean rich like driving nice cars or they might even have a plane rich or a helicopter rich and you’re there for dinner and you and your wife get back into your car to go home.
Ryne DeBoer And you think they’re not that they’re not all that bright are they?
Ryne DeBoer But after you and your wife leave and you say they’re not all that bright, you’ve already talked yourself out of what they did as being too risky or a bad idea or not possible.
Ryne DeBoer And you go back to what you did before.
Ryne DeBoer And so that story from Andy, I don’t know if it’s his or someone else’s, but if you think about the difference between Jobs or Elon or my buddy Willie Schlacks with the equipment shirt team, they just believed.
Dana Morey Yeah.
Ryne DeBoer And I. I really think that the art of the possible comes down to seeing things differently.
Ryne DeBoer Having faith that stuff can happen that you never saw coming, and then really just open your eyes to the fact that anything really can be done if you put your mind to it and if you believe it.
Dana Morey And if you believe it.
Ryne DeBoer Dana, you’ve met a lot of interesting people in your life. And what do you think sticks out to you the most when you recognize someone that has real talents or potential?
Dana Morey It’s really interesting, Ryne, because so many people want to look at a resume. They want to know how far they’ve been in college.
Dana Morey They want to know they’ve got degrees beyond a bachelor’s degree. And, you know, I grew up in an environment where two of my dad’s best friends didn’t make it through high school.
Dana Morey But let me tell you the story of one of them. He had a company. He started from scratch. Again, no high school education starts a company. They’re selling fire alarms, smoke alarms.
Dana Morey Companies modestly successful. He sells it when he finds out that they’re going to go off the gold standard. So he sells his company. He takes every penny he has. He buys gold at $30 an ounce.
Ryne DeBoer Wow.
Dana Morey And within a half a year, he’s ten-exed his money. So he moves to Southern California and he looks around and he sees that land is cheap and he buys huge, huge swaths of Orange County.
Ryne DeBoer Wow.
Dana Morey Another buddy of my father’s that bought and sold companies, again never graduated high school.
Dana Morey I watched these guys build these organizations and they had something that was special. It wasn’t something necessarily that can be taught in a school.
Dana Morey It was something that came from the inside. And you talk about it when you use that phrase, the art of the possible. But they had this idea that this thing can be done, and if it can be done, why can’t I be the guy to do it?
Dana Morey And so when I think about the kind of people that we want to attract, I want to attract dreamers. I want to attract people that think they can do anything.
Ryne DeBoer I agree.
Ryne DeBoer You know, one of the greatest compliments somebody ever gave me as we were driving down the road and they said something, I said, well, I think I could do that.
Dana Morey And she turned to me and she said, Dana, you think you could do anything? And I didn’t take it as an insult and it wasn’t intended to, honestly.
Dana Morey So I was like, Well, thank you.
Ryne DeBoer Yeah, its a compliment.
Dana Morey And, you know, maybe I can or maybe I can’t, but I know if I believe that I can, my odds have gone up exponentially. And so really, I’m I’m looking for people.
Dana Morey I don’t care where they’ve been to school. I don’t care about their pedigree. I’m interested in their character. I’m interested in their heart.
Dana Morey I’m interested if they’ve got grit and if they have the ability to believe something and then just dig their heels in until they get it. And then that’s what I’m seeing.
Dana Morey Those are the kinds of people that I’m seeing coming to our company. I can’t wait to see the mountains these people climb.
Ryne DeBoer Yeah, I totally agree. The the thing that I think is a superpower also is curiosity.
Dana Morey Yeah.
Ryne DeBoer So those series of questions that those gentlemen ask themselves, in that process is fascinating to me because,
Ryne DeBoer think of all the questions that they had to ask themselves in a row to make that decision. So I totally agree, that’s that’s amazing.
Dana Morey You know, Ryne, one of the things that I’ve watched you interact with or interface on a whole bunch of different occasions.
Dana Morey And I always love your response, and that is when somebody implies in any way you’re never going to pull this off. I see something in you that rises up.
Ryne DeBoer Mm hmm.
Ryne DeBoer And I think that the world is looking for people that believe in something.
Dana Morey And there are people that want to be a part of a team that is being led by people that really won’t take no for an answer.
Dana Morey And I just I love it when I see that in you. And what what what is driving that?
Ryne DeBoer That’s a great question. What comes to my mind is I really admire champions.
Dana Morey Yeah.
Ryne DeBoer And I really admire people that pull off the win when you’re not supposed to. I think that probably is one of my favorite memories as a child is watching Jordan do what he did and just being a kid in Chicago.
Ryne DeBoer It was we were so lucky to be able to to have that as a nightly entertainment. But if you look at others like that, whether it be Tom Brady recent history or even maybe not the GOATs like those guys. Peyton Manning. Kobe Bryant.
Ryne DeBoer Champions are champions. And I think that one of the things that is just the coolest is when energy is at a thousand, noise is at 120 or 150 decibels or whatever the right number is the right sound engineer.
Ryne DeBoer But my dad always had a really loud boat, so the police reports over and we’d have to actually take decibel levels of this mufflers. So I have a little bit of experience with it.
Dana Morey Is you like horsepower?
Ryne DeBoer Yeah, and I like horsepower, but I always wanted to be like that. I just watched it and it was like, what would I be like if I was there right now?
Ryne DeBoer If I’m on the field in that moment, am I going to pass the ball or do I want the ball? Am I going to shoot for the win or am I going to chicken out?
Ryne DeBoer Am I going to believe that I’m going to win or am I going to believe that I’m going to lose?
Ryne DeBoer And nowadays, you know, it looks like trying to win big business deals or pull off strategic partnerships or save our day when it comes to finding a part that we’re missing or whatever.
Ryne DeBoer But the variables are the same. You have a situation.
Ryne DeBoer You’re in it, whether it’s the pitch is thrown and you hit the ball out of the park or you throw the ball down the sideline into the end zone,.
Ryne DeBoer Or you hit the game winning shot in Utah and you ride off into the history books.
Ryne DeBoer All of it is based on a series of things, which is … you have circumstances and what are you going to do about it in the moment?
Dana Morey So when you’re looking at people that want to come to work at the Morey Corp and they come in, they sit down across the table from you, what are you looking for?
Ryne DeBoer So I’m a huge fan of Patrick Lencioni so I obviously have my own spin on what I’m looking for.
Ryne DeBoer But what he says, an ideal team player is someone that that is humble, hungry and smart.
Ryne DeBoer And so humble is self-explanatory. Having humility to inspire a group or people or a team or not taking all the credit of or having to take your humble pie when you screw up and you own it, own up to it.
Ryne DeBoer Hungry is that drive to win that you know, I see in a lot of our teammates. Yeah, I’d name them all, but I think I’d …
Dana Morey maybe miss somebody.
Ryne DeBoer Maybe miss somebody or embarrass them. And then smart is really, I think, less about how much you know, but your willingness to learn.
Dana Morey Yeah.
Ryne DeBoer And I think growing up as a kid, I think one of the things that was strange to me when I got older was like all these teachers and adults talked about, like, you learned this much, and then it kind of ended.
Ryne DeBoer And that’s how smart you were based on your grades or your S.A.T. or A.C.T..
Ryne DeBoer And then I know a ton of people that were brilliant that 30 years later were still the same brilliant.
Ryne DeBoer And then I know a ton of people that were curious and lifelong learners that went on to do stuff that you just never saw coming.
Dana Morey So curious is another one?
Ryne DeBoer Yeah, being curious I think is huge. And I try to inspire my kids to be curious because I think curiosity is the inception of creativity.
Dana Morey Yeah.
Ryne DeBoer You have to actually be curious about something to want to do something that’s never been done before.
Dana Morey Well Ryne, thank you. It’s really I always love talking with you, which, of course, we’re doing all the time.
Dana Morey But here in the setting, it’s great. I really appreciate you.
Ryne DeBoer Yeah, I appreciate you, too. And it’s a pleasure to fight for the future together.
Ryne DeBoer That was another Morey Moment.
