The job of CEO is multi-pronged. Drive revenue, strategy, and growth, while being the face of the company, AND ensuring he or she is aligned with their board of directors. That’s why we occasionally like to interview CEOs for our “How They Do It Series, to gain insights into their philosophy and culture. In this episode of the Can You Hear Me? Podcast, Rob Johnson welcomes Marty Ozinga, CEO of Ozinga, to talk about building trust and the Ozinga brand.
Marty Ozinga IV is chief executive officer of Ozinga. Founded in 1928, Ozinga is a fifth-generation family enterprise best known for its red and white striped concrete mixer trucks. In 2012, Marty took the reins of running the family business as CEO/president from his father, Marty Ozinga III. Marty is joined by his five brothers and one cousin in the fourth generation of ownership. There are thirty-two family members in the fifth generation.
Marty earned a BA in economics and business from Westmont College in Santa Barbara, CA, and an MS in communications from Northwestern University. He has served on numerous not-for-profit boards, including currently serving on the board of the Luke Society. Marty and his wife Amy have six children. They reside in the Little Italy neighborhood of Chicago.
Ozinga is a purpose driven business whose purpose is to have a positive impact on individuals, their families, and the community for generations. This purpose is rooted in the Ozinga family mission to first and foremost honor and glorify God and to serve the crown of His creation. In 2019, Ozinga received the Dean’s Award from the Illinois Family Business of the Year Awards for excellence social enterprise, supply chain management or emerging markets. Ozinga has 2,000+ employees with operations primarily in Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin, Michigan and Florida.
Rob Johnson: [00:00:18] Hello, everyone. Welcome to another edition of the Can You Hear Me podcast. I'm Rob Johnson, president of Rob Johnson Communications. Eileen is not with us today, sadly, because she had some unanticipated connectivity issues. So she sends her apologies and she'll be back with us on the next episode. Well, occasionally here on the Can You Hear Me podcast, we like to shine the light on leaders to learn more about their style and their priorities and their culture. We call it the How They Do It series. And today we are thrilled to be joined by one such leader. He is Marty Ozinga, CEO of Ozinga, and now the host of the Said in Stone podcast, which they produce in their sparkling new podcast studio at Ozinga headquarters in Mokina. And for those of you that will be watching this on YouTube, you can see him from that sparkling studio. For the rest of you, that's audio only. So sorry. Marty, thanks for joining us on Can You Hear Me Today. Really appreciate you joining. [00:01:08][50.1]
Marty Ozinga: [00:01:09] Thank you, Rob. Glad to be here. [00:01:10][1.0]
Rob Johnson: [00:01:10] Well, it it's interesting that, you know, you're gonna be probably taking notes like how you know, listen, we we've got this great podcast studio, we know what we're doing. Let's see if Rob and the Can You Hear Me folks know what they're doing and I [00:01:21][11.1]
Marty Ozinga: [00:01:22] Well I don't know if we know what we're doing, but we're trying to figure it out. So [00:01:24][2.2]
Rob Johnson: [00:01:25] You're doing it, man. You're doing it. So Marty, Ozinga is a nearly one hundred year old company that specializes in concrete and bulk materials. And our Illinois listeners will probably remember seeing your ubiquitous red trucks on just about every construction site in the area. We know this is a family business, but could you share your background a little bit and how you knew you were destined to join the family business? [00:01:46][21.2]
Marty Ozinga: [00:01:46] Yes, I'd be happy to. So Osinga is a ninety-seven year old company. It was started by my great grandfather, Martin Osinga Senior, in nineteen twenty-eight. He was a Dutch immigrant. They came from the Netherlands in the eighteen ninety-three, actually the year of the World's Fair, in Chicago, the Columbian Exposition. And as a kid, he was a vegetable peddler. And they came to be in re in in start the company as after he was in law enforcement in Evergreen Park for a while. In nineteen twenty-eight, he started as a coal delivery business. And the next generation got us into concrete after World War Two. And that's been the the main business since then. But we've gotten into a number of other businesses as a family, but ready makes concrete since about nineteen fifty has been sort of our trademark, as you said, red and white stripe truck trucks riding around town, the mixer trucks. But for about seventy five years now, that's been sort of the the main say. [00:02:42][55.6]
Rob Johnson: [00:02:43] So so what was your background education wise and and and did you know immediately, hey, I'm the next generation, I'm go I'm going into the business or was that something that didn't occur to you initially? What was that process like? [00:02:54][11.0]
Marty Ozinga: [00:02:54] Yeah, that's that's a great question for a lot of family businesses. So I'm I'm fourth generation. I have five brothers and a cousin that are are with me in the fourth generation. And I think for us growing up, because the company had such a great name and reputation and we saw our dad go to work and and take pride in the work, and we started working there in summers and school and whatnot, it really became a place where I think we took great pride in having the opportunity to work there. And so you know, I think there was always the idea that we, you know, could work somewhere else, but we all at one point or another have chosen to work at the family business. And for me, you know, when I was young, I think I wanted to play for the White Sox, you know, and and you know, go to space and some other things, but you know, eventually it settled on the family business. But [00:03:43][49.0]
Rob Johnson: [00:03:43] And and and what a family business it is. So l let's let's pivot here a little bit because I know that there's a few things that are very top of mind for you when it when it comes to leading a company. And you're the CEO, the buck stops with you and you're pulled in many different directions. What would you say is the most essential part of building a positive foundation for your company or any other company? [00:04:05][21.4]
Marty Ozinga: [00:04:05] Yeah, I think at the the most important thing is trying to understand the foundation of why you do what you do. For us as a family, you know, we come from a a faith tradition, a Christian tradition that this business is part of our faith con calling, that we're actually called to do this work. And so we have that common bond amongst ourselves. So I think that's been foundational to our history and a family of you know, seeing us as stewards of this business, of of of the legacy, of the values. And then from there, understanding, you know, why why is it that we do or we what we do? And for us as a company, we've said we want to have a positive impact through the business, have a positive impact on people's lives and the lives of their families and the lives of the community. And because we've seen it work that way for generations, we say that we wanna that's our purpose, that we want to do it for g that those impacts would last for generations. And, you know, having that common purpose really helps us I think stay grounded in in why we do what we do. And then from there, you know, we can get to work on strategy and other things, but you have to have a common sort of foundation of your purpose, I believe. For us as a family, it it extends into our deep roots of of our faith. And you know, beyond that, we start to get into values and sort of how how we do what we do, why you know, how we behave. And then and and then from there you start to get, you know, the outcomes of, you know, the results kind of flow from, you know, there. So that's the way we look at things. [00:05:36][90.5]
Rob Johnson: [00:05:36] How important to you is building trust and when you're when you're building that foundation, how how important is trust to building that? [00:05:42][6.1]
Marty Ozinga: [00:05:43] Yeah. I mean, I I look at trust as the foundation of all relationships. For me, trust is is is a key thing at whether it's in at home in a marriage or or with your children. But trust at work is all about, you know, making sure that you have a found a strong foundation to be able to do things in a way that you can execute without a lot of wasted energy. And in a lot of organizations or communities, you have a lot of wasted energy, politics and you know, back channel conversations and you know, really infighting. And I'm not saying we don't have any of that at Ozinga, but we really want to work hard to have a high level of trust so that there's you you really mitigate the wasted energy that you can work to you know, when you do fight, so to speak, when you do have conflict that it's healthy and it's robust and you can really you really have good healthy, robust conflict about ideas, not not personal, you know, agendas. That's a that's a really good point. [00:06:40][57.0]
Rob Johnson: [00:06:40] And, you know, a lot of the things you're talking about, foundation and trust and things of that nature have, you know, positive connotations, but you did bring up just a second ago, kind of eliminating distractions, friction and things of that nature. Why is that so crucial for you? And how are you able to do it for you and everyone who works with you at Ozinga when it comes to eliminating those things that are potentially wasted energy? [00:07:01][21.0]
Marty Ozinga: [00:07:02] Well, I I would first say that even though we've been at it for ninety seven years, that we're still a work in progress. You know, it's it is you you have to kind of come to the table with acknowledging that it's fragile and that at any time you could it could get eroded. And so you really have to put in the work of of and the commitment and and and remind yourself and refresh yourself about why it's so important. With that being said, you know, I think particularly when you look at the odds of family business survival, you know, that you get to fourth or fifth generation and you start to get to really very low single digit numbers or even less than one percent survival rate, really of all businesses, you know, up to a hundred years old. But family businesses in particular, you start there's just a lot of you know, dynamics that come into play, in in families, but then you have family business. And so, you know, it's it's that much more important, I think, in any business, but but also in our case in a family business that we continue to work on, you know, having a strong foundation of trust so that again, you we don't get distracted from the mission and the purpose of why we're doing what we're doing. [00:08:03][61.3]
Rob Johnson: [00:08:04] You really bring up an inter interesting point because I see it and I'm sure a lot of our listeners do as well, that you'll see a founder, you'll see somebody who, you know, built a business from you know the ground up and not all the time, but many times the next generation or the generation after that aren't that interested in running it. And so that speaks to your low percentage of, you know, those older businesses that that are still successful. What was done in your family? I know you have the values, I know you have the trust, and and I know you said you saw your dad going to work and he was proud of it and that sort of thing, but it has to be more than that. What was what was instilled in all of you to make you say, We will we want in on that? And then I would say perhaps arguably you're taking it to another level and that would make your your dad and your grandpa and your great grandpa, you know, very proud. How was how did that work where it was something that was like, Hey, we we gotta get you know, th this next generation, we gotta get in on it. [00:08:56][52.6]
Marty Ozinga: [00:08:57] Yeah, I think you mentioned a lot of the things, but one of the thing that's been consistent in the generations for us is the founder or the next generation. At some point when they determined that the next generation was ready, they got out of the way. And that was that was a tr that's been a tremendous blessing for our business in that you know, every generation has sort of respected the ability and ambition of young people and the upcoming generation to say, okay, you know, these guys these guys are ready and because of that I'm I'm gonna get out of their way. And I think we we if we look at our story, every generation did that at a pretty young age for the next generation. And so that's gonna be our challenge as the company's grown is to figure out, you know, when the next generation is ready. And you know, that that I think there's a there's a reason that's attractive is because, you know, you you wanna have autonomy, you know, you wanna have pride of ownership and you wanna know that like you you got your shot and you're not just in someone else's shadow kind of thing. And a lot of times I think people get stuck on like just sort of, you know. Under the shadow of, you know, the previous person or whatever. And, you know, some people make that work, you know, working together with their dad or, you know, their parent and other people have a really hard time with it. And, you know, s if you think about age, you know, some people, you know, live to ninety and and their and their seventy year old son is waiting, you know, to take their turn. Yeah. Yeah. So I mean, th that can work, but it often does not. [00:10:29][92.0]
Rob Johnson: [00:10:29] So the way you talk about all of this, it sounds so natural for you and your family to build the culture in this fashion. But the truth is, and we talked about it when we were having our planning meeting, many leaders don't subscribe to this. This isn't natural for them. It it it's very natural for you all. So even though it is, you still have to spend time and energy on alignment and trust. So why why do you do it? Why do you spend so much time? Because you don't have to. A lot of places don't do it. Why is it so vital for Ozinger? [00:10:55][25.7]
Marty Ozinga: [00:10:56] Well, probably 'cause we learn things the hard way, you know. I mean, w when we don't, you know, get back to the the knitting and the basics of those things, you know, you y y you have a lot of pain. [00:11:05][9.3]
Rob Johnson: [00:11:06] Yeah. [00:11:06][0.0]
Marty Ozinga: [00:11:06] That's true. You know, you see dysfunction and you and and it starts to be very distracting, as I said earlier. And we've realized that, you know, you can either try to, you know, keep putting band-aids on dysfunction or you can get to the root of things. And I think there's a there's a bit Bible verse that says something to the effect of love covers a multitude of sins. You know, and if there's there's you know, we're all gonna mess up on a regular basis and and you can either get really petty about other people's mess ups or you can have grace and and just sort of like water off a duck's back kind of thing and just move on. And you know, that pettiness can can be a real distraction in any kind of community. And you know, if if you if if you find yourself in that situation, you know, it's very difficult just to serve customers and and and get the job done when you're dealing with, you know, a lot of infighting, so to speak. And you know. As I said, you know, I I I've challenged a I do a lot of onboarding with new employees and, you know, outside looking in, we look like the shiny, you know, bright example. We're we're ninety-seven years of track record and we have a lot to be proud of. But you get under the hood here and you'll see a lot of work, you know, room for improvement. And and that's part of I think what makes it work is coming to the table acknowledging that we're all kind of a a a project in in in in under construction individually. And if you can kind of sort of have that level of vulnerability, I think that does start to help foster trust because we're all kind of a hot mess and and and we gotta be sort of willing to admit that w we all have areas of improvement. And I think from there you can start to actually get to work on how we can help each other. [00:12:43][96.4]
Rob Johnson: [00:12:43] I really love the the fact that you talked about the vulnerability because I talk about that a lot with with clients. It has to be authentic, first of all. You can't be like, I'm gonna be vulnerable if you're not. So it has to be authentic, but it also requires a bit of self awareness. And I that's one of my key messages to everybody who's in a leadership position is if you have self-awareness, all these other things are gonna take care of themselves because you're gonna be paying attention to it and you're gonna understand that things can be better. So when you talk about that vulnerability, you're exhibiting self awareness. How do you how important do you think it is to be a leader sitting where you sit who is self aware and who knows, hey, we've got ninety seven years, we got a lot to celebrate, but we got a long way to go. You can't do that if you think that you're always right and and you, you know, bark out orders and it's not a two way street, you know, in terms of the conversation. [00:13:31][47.3]
Marty Ozinga: [00:13:31] Yeah, I think that's significant. I think, you know, you you have to appreciate that we you know we all need help. You know, we all have gifts and talents and abilities, but we also all have limitations. And when you surround yourself with, you know, a talented team. My dad used to say, you know, surround my he he would try to surround himself with people smarter than him. And he wasn't just talking about like IQ per se, or people who got better grades. It but it was people who had different gifts than he did. And you know, if you have that belief that you are surrounded with people who have complimentary or different gifts than you do, well then you should say, Hey, I need your help. And that's vulnerability right there is just to say, Hey, I need help here. I can't do this myself. I think some people, when they're running a small business or any business or a project, it's like they feel like, you know, as the leader, you have to have all the answers. What do you mean you don't have all the answers? And it's like, no, I that's why I I have you here because I I I I hadn't I need help and I don't have the answers. That's a that's listening. [00:14:27][55.8]
Rob Johnson: [00:14:28] Right. I mean, some people like to be like, you know, think of themselves as like a me brand CEO, like I have all the answers and I know all the answers. And if you're doing your job because you're, you know, at the top of the the ladder, the rung, there's no way you can have the answers. You do you do have to listen to what the people that are out there on the front lines, people that are out there meeting with customers, clients, whatever the case may be, they're the ones that should be providing you the answers, true? [00:14:49][20.7]
Marty Ozinga: [00:14:49] Yeah, I think that's absolutely right. I mean, and I think you you you get answers by asking good questions. And I think I know I need to do better at this all the time at not just at work but at home, but like just being a good listener, asking good questions, and then, you know, the question after the question, even, you know, I think a lot of that is, you know, just being a curious person and and asking good questions and and really trying to get to the heart of like what someone's trying to communicate, what they're saying. And I think also like being comfortable in your own skin, like because otherwise you can get defensive pretty quickly and and not really hear what someone's trying the intent of what someone's trying to say. Sometimes people can be fighting for the relationship. It comes across as some kind of attack. You could get defensive and then attack them back, or you could just say, Hey, can you tell me more about that? Why do you feel that way? Or and and again, I I'm I'm learning these things r myself. You know, I mean, we're all we're all trying to figure this stuff out. And you know, I think we as communities as a society, we could all do a better job of of of being better listeners. So [00:15:49][59.7]
Rob Johnson: [00:15:49] Absolutely. I know, I know I've been working very hard on it and I've been made aware of it. And you and I both love to talk, but I've really tried to listen to other people that really send them down that road where I can learn more about them. And that the truth is, you know, when you get people to talk more, they're talking about their favorite subject, you know, themselves. Exactly. It's kind of natural. So so clearly you all have been leaning on trust collaboration to build the Ozinga culture. But for a brand as well known as yours, I have been personally impressed at how committed you are to continuing that brand building. In fact, we mentioned earlier in the podcast that said in stone, your podcast, is produced from the headquarters in the state of the art studio in Mokina. And I will also say, in full disclosure, I've had the opportunity to come down there on several occasions and work with you and work with some other folks when it comes to the podcast producing. But it is an absolute, you know, shiny toy. It is I mean, I I it's the it's gotta be the envy of anybody who can see the podcast studio. It's a tremendous investment you're making. That's what I'm getting to. Why did you decide to make that kind of investment? And why do you believe podcasts are one of the tools in building your overall brand as you move forward here? [00:16:58][68.4]
Marty Ozinga: [00:16:58] Well, first of all, I can't take credit for the for the for the investment. One of my brothers, Justin, he he decided to to do this and I I wasn't aware of even how much money they were spending. But the in in the end, it really is in alignment with what we're about from the standpoint of, you know, I I didn't share this before. Maybe maybe it's written somewhere, but I I I I went to Northwestern for a master's in communication. A lot of business people go for a master's in business. I I decided to go for a master's in communication just because I I felt like you know, communication is, you know, we can never do enough communicating. At least that was one of the things I learned in in in the program is we just assume too much about the people that are under our, you know, in our lives, you know, what that people aren't mind readers and and and we assume they are. And you know, so sometimes we get sick of hearing ourselves say the same thing over and over and over again, whether that's a story or or or what where we're going. But you know, for us, having the podcast, it's just another tool in the toolbox to communicate, you know, with with our stakeholders, our coworkers, our customers, people in the community. And you know, to me, people can see this the the red and white striped trucks riding around, but behind the company and behind the equipment is human lives, you know, people and in a lot of respects when we communicate, we're trying to sort of humanize the corporation, if you will, by just getting people to understand, you know, what makes us tick, what we're interested in, you know, what we care about. And you know, hopefully that resonates with people and they want to join us in in doing good work. [00:18:33][94.9]
Rob Johnson: [00:18:34] I think I think your episodes so far have been fantastic and you've had some very interesting guests on. You were you're not, you know, somebody that's done a lot of podcasts, but you were the you're the one that it was the you're you're the pioneer there at Ozinger, right? What have you learned in those interactions with your guests and just this whole process of an unfiltered discussion, the one we're having right here? You know, we have we have guardrails up a little bit just to send us down the tracks the right way, but most of this is just, hey, this question popped into my head and I and I'm genuinely interested in what you have to say. What do you think you've learned as a podcast host now that that's one of your major brand building initiatives using the podcast? [00:19:11][36.8]
Marty Ozinga: [00:19:11] Yeah, I mean I I I've always enjoyed a one on one conversation. And so in many respects, you know, I I find it, you know, a little bit of a disservice that one on one conversations are you know, so private. You know, the obviously conversations need to be private at times, but like it it's it's really an a privilege in some respects that other people are willing to take those one on one conversations public because I just think there's so many great stories out there. And and we get to hear those because of what we do. And for us again, I think it's just a a really valuable opportunity to build relationship with the guest, you know, and and have a very sort of long form, you know, in-depth conversation that we may not have otherwise, you know, may or may not. And then just to share that and and hopefully again, our purpose is to have a positive impact on on people. Somehow or another, that that that changes the trajectory of people's lives by hearing something through the mediums that are now available to us, you know, podcast being one of them and and all the technology we have to to broadcast these messages. I mean, I know you've spent time in T V and radio. We didn't, you know, having a having a a station or a chan a TV channel, you know, that was you know, never really, you know, I I don't know how much that would have cost, but you know, this is a lower barrier to do. [00:20:32][81.2]
Rob Johnson: [00:20:32] Potter in your studio is w is way cheaper. [00:20:33][1.5]
Marty Ozinga: [00:20:34] Yeah, it's a much lower barrier to entry to to communicate to a very broad audience potentially. And you know, that's exciting. You know, innovation in technology ha is is allowing us to communicate with people all over the world, that you know, we wouldn't otherwise be able to do. And I think that's just one of the the joys and the benefits of utilizing technology to continue to live into our purpose and to communicate with people. [00:20:58][23.6]
Rob Johnson: [00:20:58] Well, I'll I'll just say this again. I I'm so impressed with that studio. I'm so impressed with the investment you've made as a company and some really talented people that are behind the scenes helping you execute all of that. You you got you have a great team and it's exciting for me. Yeah. [00:21:13][14.6]
Marty Ozinga: [00:21:12] Exciting for me. It's the team that, you know, sort of makes us all look good. You know, the the production people behind the scenes, that in so much in life is like that, you know, where you you're the people that you surround yourself with and are behind the scenes either, you know, make or break you. And in our case, they're making us, like you said, they're making us look good here. So [00:21:30][17.9]
Rob Johnson: [00:21:30] Real really impressive. And as a communicator, I'm just really happy that you see the value because some of my other clients too are like, Hey, we need help with brand building and one of the tenants is we need, you know, we gotta have a podcast. [00:21:41][10.7]
Marty Ozinga: [00:21:42] No. [00:21:42][0.0]
Rob Johnson: [00:21:42] The clients I'm working with aren't building their own studios like you have. They're doing them remotely, but but people see the value and having that subject matter expertise, having that ability to communicate unfiltered, where you don't have your message being synthesized in different ways. It's your message. And I think that's very powerful for companies that are trying to remind people of what they have to offer. [00:22:03][21.3]
Marty Ozinga: [00:22:04] Yeah, thank you. And thanks for your thanks for your guidance on it too. [00:22:07][2.6]
Rob Johnson: [00:22:07] It's been a real help. It's always, it's always a pleasure to to meet with your folks because I mean, listen, people who are listening to this are saying, man, he sounds like a really good guy, and you are, but it's also the people that every person I've worked with there, they're they also have the same kind of sensibility. And that's because you've instilled that in them. You're hiring people that you know are aligned with that kind of philosophy. And so every time I walk in there, it's it's a it's a joy. So that's that's a complete credit to you and and everybody that that runs Oz Inc. [00:22:36][28.8]
Marty Ozinga: [00:22:37] I appreciate it. [00:22:37][0.4]
Rob Johnson: [00:22:38] Yeah. [00:22:38][0.0]
Marty Ozinga: [00:22:38] Yeah. [00:22:38][0.0]
Rob Johnson: [00:22:38] So before we wrap up here, Marty, if people the listeners, once this is over, they're like, What did I learn today? What is the one thing you want to leave our listeners with today? You want them to take home with them? [00:22:50][11.5]
Marty Ozinga: [00:22:50] You know, I think with respect to how we communicate, I I think about it like to to be you're you mentioned the word authentic. I think it's so important to just be comfortable in your own skin, no matter what what setting you're in, obviously you have to be mindful of you know your audience and and and be strategic. But I do think, you know, if you want if we want to build trust with people, we have to be authentic and just find ways to communicate our our heartbeat as as individuals and and people in community. And I I just think there's so many great opportunities in community to to impact our world, impact people's lives. And but it has a lot of these ideas, if they just stay in our minds and they don't go to our our mouths and then like to some kind of medium that helps advance it, you know, they it's a disservice to the you know, the the the God given thoughts and dreams and abilities that we have, if they just stay up here and they don't get like out with this tongue of ours into the into the ether, you know, they're not those things aren't gonna go anywhere. So let's, you know, let's have some courage. And and you know, we're all made with unique get t gifts, talents, and abilities and and and and also dreams, unique dreams. And so if we can find ways to have courage enough to to to have good conversations and to share them, I think we can impact the world. And I think that's an exciting thing to think about. [00:24:15][85.0]
Rob Johnson: [00:24:16] That's really exciting. That that's very inspirational and that's a great thing to m there's the mic drop from Marty Ozinga. Thanks for joining us on our How They Do It series. It this was absolutely enlightening and I just love your leadership style and your sensibility and the fact that you think about the little things and have that self awareness. Bravo. [00:24:36][20.2]
Marty Ozinga: [00:24:36] Well thank you, Rob. I appreciate you having me. Wow. [00:24:38][1.5]
Rob Johnson: [00:24:39] It's been my our pleasure. So that's gonna do it for another edition of Can You Hear Me? I'm Rob Johnson. If you'd like to comment on the podcast or suggest a topic, please contact us at our Can You Hear Me podcast page on LinkedIn or subscribe to our newsletter, which is on that same page. Eileen says hello to everyone. She will be back next episode. And if you like what you heard, please consider giving Can You Hear Me a positive review wherever you get your podcast, such as Apple or Spotify. It helps other listeners find the podcast. Thanks for listening. [00:24:39][0.0]
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