Never Say Never
PTDA '23 President Mike McLain didn't expect to land in distribution - and love it.
by Kim Phelan
PTDA PRESIDENT MIKE MCLAIN’S CIRCUITOUS ROUTE INTO DISTRIBUTION… AND LEADERSHIP
He quit and had no plans of ever returning. As a high-schooler, Mike McLain did odd jobs around the warehouse at Allied Bearing & Supply, a company his dad, Jim, started with a business partner in 1986 in New Orleans. Those tasks included anything the full-time employees didn’t especially want to do, and he recalls having to paint a forklift once – not big fun when you’re 15. Coming back over 20 years later as vice president to run the two-location company with his father and even serving as the 2023 president of the Power Transmission Distributors Association (PTDA) would have sounded crazy to him back in those days – but it’s nevertheless what he did.
But back then, during high school, he tendered his resignation at Allied and thought mowing grass was more promising than the family business, even if he was working for the man his dad hired to maintain the lawn at the family’s home. The young McLain knew the distribution business was not in his future.
He made good on that assessment, for a while. Graduating high school in 1993, McLain set a course for an engineering degree but quickly re-navigated toward education and wound up as a Texas teacher and coach, first in Dallas, then Houston for a total of 15 years. Along the way, he married and had a couple of kids. When his son was ready to enter middle school, McLain suddenly hit the brakes.
“I realized I was going to spend all my time coaching other people’s kids and not watching my own kids in their activities,” McLain said. “At the same time, my dad was asking me to decide about coming into the business – he had to make a decision how to move forward.”
The business won, and so did his family. McLain left teaching and relocated back to his home city of New Orleans in 2013. “I’ll never say never again,” he laughed. Over time, he would work in the accounting department, the warehouse, and sales, all part of his fast-track education into the distribution business. And even after more than 10 years in the business, he’s still constantly trying to absorb as much industry knowledge from dad Jim McLain as he possibly can.
“When I was teaching, my dad and I used to talk every morning on my way to school – we’d talk about work, but it was out of my head after we hung up; it just wasn’t part of what I was doing,” McLain recalled. “I wish now I could have retained half of what he talked about!”
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| Mike McLain wearing one of his many hats. |
“We always try to do right by people – our employees and our customers,” he said. “Dad has pressed into my mindset that we are a small company and our employees are our family.
“As business owners,” he added, “we’re obviously here to make money, but you can only make money if the customers you provide for are happy and you’re taking care of them. If you truly are putting people first in what you do, they have a different perspective about you. We’re here to serve our customers, and we try to do what’s best for them.”
KEEPING A SMALL-BUSINESS HEART
With locations in both New Orleans and Baton Rouge and employing about 25 people across both facilities, Allied Bearing grows 5%-10% a year on average, said McLain. In fact, it’s evolved into more of a mid-sized business, but they prefer to think and act as a small company – people-centric, responsive, as well as nimble. One way they distinguish themselves in the industrial marketplace is by keeping a large inventory that’s specific to their region, though they’ll sell to any state.
“We specialize in holding inventory for our local area to help our customers when they get in trouble,” he said. “We stock some items that have 32-, 36-, 40-week lead time. It benefits our customers and it’s an advantage for us too, if no one else has it.”
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| Mike McLain (L), vice president, and Jim McLain, president of Allied Bearing & Supply. |
But the defining and shining quality about Allied is its people, McLain proudly acknowledges. Many have 25 to 40 years of experience with the company.
“They’re great at finding ways around a problem – if a customer calls in who has equipment broken down and they need something, even though we might not have what they need, our people are good at identifying other options,” McLain said. “If they can’t wait 12 weeks, we have a team that can say, ‘If we do this, this, and this, we can get you running in two days.’
“That’s where we differentiate ourselves,” he continued. “Our people are smart enough to understand what’s really going on and not just regurgitate part numbers. They ask the questions to find out what the real problem is. We liken our people to doctors; they’re not going to treat the symptom, they’re going to find out what’s causing the symptoms to better support the customer. And sometimes it costs us money – with the right solution we’ve given them, the customer might buy that part every six months instead of every three weeks. But in the long run, we’ve helped them, which helps us.”
Allied has been fortunate enough to make three new hires this year, transitioning into some younger talent – two young guys have filled vacancies left by those who moved on, and one who was “an opportunity too good to pass up,” said McLain. Recalling a recent conversation with fellow PTDA members about workforce struggles, he added, “I just need good people who will show up and are willing to work – I can teach them the job.” Sometimes that means putting the new person at the front counter to field customer problems. The exercise of going to the back office to get help from experienced employees is a great way to absorb product knowledge on the fly while developing problem-solving skills, he said. Throughout the company, McLain has also been intentional about cross-training to ensure every job has a backup. Keeping Allied’s newer employees up to speed has the added pressure of customers being in the same labor shortage boat.
“As our customers’ people know less, they rely on us more, which means the on-the-job training of our up-and-comers has to be done at a rapid pace,” he said. “That’s definitely a challenge we’re facing.”
Allied’s customer base is diverse, which is why he characterizes the company as multi-niched. Serving many industries and machine shops that serve oil and gas is par for a power transmission/bearings distributor in Southern Louisiana, but they also reap business from the shipping ports, ship building and repair, other marine and motor shops, agriculture processing (including sugar), concrete, some food and beverage (breweries, Coca Cola, and Folgers coffee), refineries, and more. McLain said customer sentiment has morphed over three years from the urgent ‘get it at any price’ to a more guarded and cost-counting mindset that still wants product yesterday.
“And they want us to make their job easier,” he said. “They’re being pushed to save money, to show cost reduction, so they want us to be able to help them with that. Sometimes it’s through documentation, expediting products, and just taking care of them and making them look good.”
BUYING GROWTH
One way Allied takes care of customers is with an in-house mini-shop to handle repairs fast. The distributor is the oldest authorized repair shop in the country for Voith, a fluid drive technology provider. A company that’s on a sturdy growth trajectory, Allied expanded sales at the end of 2019 when it acquired PTDA member Stephens-Harris, a five-person power transmission, conveyor and material handling sales and repair operation. After the transition, McLain said they discovered there was considerable customer overlap but not product overlap, and Stephens-Harris customers still order from their original contacts who now work at Allied.
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| Dwight Guey, purchasing and sales manager pauses for a conversation with McLain in the warehouse. |
Humble and hard-working, McLain has a business and life mantra that comes down to this: “Be true to who you are,” he said. His background in education taught him that kids can always tell when you’re faking it – like them, people in the business world respect you when you’re being honest. It’s a principle he tries to model for young employees, too.
“It’s fun to be right,” he said. “But it’s better to take the time to make sure that you’re right. It’s ok to say you don’t know but you’ll find out, and always admit when you’re wrong.”
A LEADER WHO LISTENS
As 2023 president of the Power Transmission Distributors Association, Mike McLain has served as chairman of the board, the top decision-making body of the organization – but getting to PTDA’s top volunteer role was a process that began several years ago with volunteer committee participation. Harnessing his teaching experience as well as his master’s degree in education, McLain served on the education committee and was quickly recognized as a promising association leader by his peers. Since then, he served a two-year term as a director, as well as secretary-treasurer followed by second and first vice president.
During his year as president, he’s been responsible for overseeing execution of PTDA’s strategic mission, setting the tone for the year, and defining the overall direction of the organization, according to PTDA Executive Director Ann Arnott. Under his watch, the association released a major member training resource: its new LMS called the PTDA Learning Hub, which comprised the digitization of PTDA’s Power Transmission Handbook.
McLain also spearheaded staff visits to 25 member companies to drill beyond surveys
and reap a deeper understanding of members’ needs. He’s also been instrumental in analyzing the results from those meetings.
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| Shop Foreman Jay Herbert and McLain confer on a repair. |
“Mike never thinks he’s the only one with the answers. He relishes having a discussion and getting other people’s opinions and buy-in,” said Arnott. “He asks a lot of questions and he listens to the answers.”
His work and his approach as a leader made a positive imprint.
“I would love to have Mike serve as president again,” Arnott reflected. “He doesn’t have 40 years of experience in the industry like a lot of members do, but this was an advantage. Mike’s not afraid to try something new – but not haphazardly or to throw a monkey wrench in there. He wants to make sure things are done with thoughtfulness and intent.”
As for McLain, he maintains that volunteers get more out of the experience than they give. “It’s the intangibles – the relationships and the knowledge you get,” he said. “When I’m volunteering, I feel like I’m growing. PTDA has definitely made me better for Allied.”
This article originally appeared in the September/October 2023 issue of Industrial Supply magazine. Copyright 2023, Direct Business Media.
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