The Innovators with George Davison

Electronics Recycling With Jim Levine, Regency Technologies

September 09, 2021 Tomorrow's World Today Season 1 Episode 1
The Innovators with George Davison
Electronics Recycling With Jim Levine, Regency Technologies
Show Notes Transcript

What do you do with your old laptop when you buy a new one? Trade it in? Throw it away? Put it in a box in the basement where it collects dust? On this episode of The Innovators, host George Davison talks to Jim Levine, president and founder of Regency Technologies. Fifteen years ago, Jim noticed that landfills were piling huge amounts of electronics waste. His company, Regency Technologies, created an electronics recycling process that is still helping to save the planet today.
 
For more information on electronic recycling, head to TomorrowsWorldToday.com.

George Davison:

Well, we have, uh, Jim Levine here. He is the founder and the entrepreneur who started a company called Regency technologies. And, uh, it's quite a large organization today that started out of an idea back, uh, well, a little while ago. And you've got, what about 1500 employees nowadays?

Jim Levine, Regency Technologies:

Yup.

George Davison:

Wow. Jim, that's quite an accomplishment. Can you walk us back a little bit and let's talk to our audience a little about back in the days when you were first starting out. Um, you know, uh, can you take us back to where the idea came from to start your business?

Jim Levine, Regency Technologies:

Sure. Uh, and thanks for having me, George. Uh, so Regency technologies started out of, um, situation like many small businesses where myself and a handful of people were working for a bigger organization and the company got sold to a bank in 1990. And that company wasn't a equipment leasing company, uh, selling large mainframe computers, leasing, large mainframe computers to banks and insurance companies and hospitals. And at that time I was working for a small division of the company that was responsible for remarketing assets when they came back off lease. And when the company got sold, that particular division was not part of the...

George Davison:

Okay. So let me walk that back a little bit for this audience and say that, uh, an asset would be something like a lot of computers back in the old days, it would sit on the desk at some big company, they would use these computers and pay a fee to do that. And at the end of the period, all those computers would go back somewhere. Is that right?

Jim Levine, Regency Technologies:

Pretty similar, but actually we've been at it for so long that back in those days they were big mainframe computers. So I'm going back before it even PCs and laptops. So it was like, you know, you're thinking about the big IBM blue, you know, they used to call it big iron. And so this was before the advent of the PC became something that we're all familiar with today. And that was part of the Genesis of the businesses that it had been changing so rapidly and moving away from mainframes and mid-range, and just having what they used to call dumb terminals, sitting on people's desks, probably not a great name at the time, but, you know, that's what they referred to them as. And the, essentially the group that I was with was, which was only about a half a dozen people, uh, could see that they see the writing on the wall that things were changing and things were moving to the desktop. And the individuals in these companies forget about consumers were starting to use desktop computing. And there were more and more assets that were coming into the workplace. So we saw a need for logistics moving these things around, either installing them, removing them, forget about data wiping. No one was thinking about, you know, data security. And no one was thinking about environmental at that time. It was all about monetizing the value when that equipment was coming back off lease. So we sort of inserted ourselves into the equation as the equipment, uh, the in place equipment installation started to grow and provided services for big companies to move this equipment in and out of their organizations.

George Davison:

Okay. And that was where you, you were working for a company at that time that did that, is that correct?

Jim Levine, Regency Technologies:

Well, essentially, yes. It was a division of the company that took out sold. And so that was from 1996 to 1998. And by 1998, we saw clearly that we wanted to be in this business. So we, we formed Regency technologies and pretty much bought that division from the original founders, myself and one other person.

George Davison:

Interesting. Yep. So the name Regency existed at that time, or did you create that name?

Jim Levine, Regency Technologies:

We created that name in 1998.

George Davison:

And does it have a meaning to you? What does the word Regency?

Jim Levine, Regency Technologies:

Well, the computer industry was a very, everybody in the computer industry had three letters, you know, it was ABC 1, 2, 3, and you know, it, this, and it was everything sounded the same. So, um, we did a little research on names that would sound familiar and Regency kept coming up, uh, in the search that everybody had familiarity with that it sounded Regal. It sounded important. So we said, let's just call it Regency technologies. And, uh, to this day I still laugh because we could remember when we were six months old and had no clients and no business, we would call on people and they would say, oh, we know you guys, so that's a good name.

George Davison:

You select it. Yeah. Good story. Yup. All right. So you, you started this organization and, uh, let's walk it back a little further than that. Um, what was going on in your life at that time? Was it, uh, everything just moving along in a, in a easy way, or were you really, was there a great deal of complexity in your life to work your way through the beginning of your business?

Jim Levine, Regency Technologies:

So, you know, like a lot of these stories, I'm sure you've heard in the past. Um, it was not a straightforward path. I had a job landscape changed underneath my feet, had to figure something out, um, was relative, I was newly married for a couple of years, had a kid, a new house and, you know, a job that was not, you know, really, I didn't know where it was going to, but, um, so it was definitely an uncertain period of time, but I, I, I definitely had a vision. I could see where things were going. I could see what was happening with technology and myself and the group of people that I was working with believed that this was going to continue to grow. So we really were committed to sticking with it. And, uh, like a lot of other entrepreneurs that I'm sure you've talked to when you have that feeling, it, it really gets into your DNA. And it takes a lot to try to move you off of that. It's not really about the paycheck. It's not about, uh, you know, the security it's about figuring it out. So, you know, back in the earlier days for me, I was, uh, you know, 40 hours a week was the amount of hours you were supposed to work.

George Davison:

When you were starting up your organization, were you working 40 hours a week, a lot more than 40 hours a week?

Jim Levine, Regency Technologies:

You know, it was seven days a week. Uh, you know, you'd have the 40 hour a week routine, but then it was going home. Uh, fortunately when we first started, I only lived about eight minutes fortunately, or unfortunately, depending on how you looked at it, eight minutes from the operation. So, you know, it would be play with the kids, put them to bed, go back to the operation there on the weekends, preparing on Sundays for the next week. Um, so yeah, it was a lot of time.

George Davison:

One of my mentors when I was a young person in high school and, uh, he said to me, well, George, if you, you know, you want to be average. And I, and I said, no, I don't want to be average. He said, well, how many hours should you work a week? And then I said, well, I, I think the workweek is supposed to be 40 hours a week. So 40 hours a week. And he said, 40 hours a week, if you want to be average, George. And I got to thinking about that and I thought, wow. So I need to get the 40 hours a week, every week as fast as I can, so I can work more hours than that to get ahead and not be average. And that was a mindset that really was put in my head when I was younger and helped me a lot when, when I started the business at in. But it sounds like you also had to work more than 40 hours a week to get ahead, is that it is fair, but I also want to be candid that, uh, I was never, I didn't really think of it like this. Uh, I had to work 40 hours a week or I had to work 80 hours a week.

Jim Levine, Regency Technologies:

Um, it was more about, I want to go back. I want to figure this next thing out. I was, I was liking it a lot and I hadn't had that experience really before, you know, I was just like any other young guy you say, as you said, you sort of think that there's a construct that you're supposed to follow and this thing just sort of happened. I never really planned to be an entrepreneur. I wasn't really thinking about much of anything. I wanted to have a family. I wanted to have kids, um, and have some security and do some fun things, but I wasn't really, I didn't have this perfect vision of where I wanted to go. That part just sort of happened. And when it did, I, I wanted more. So I never really felt like, you know, I have to go back and do this, or I'm working too much. Um, there were certainly times where I was aware that I probably should pump the brakes and pay attention to some other things in my life too. But, and I would say 23 years later, um, I'm very fortunate that I always tell people when it's Sunday, I'm not, I don't, I don't get the Sunday scaries that I have to go back to work on Monday. I'm excited to pull out of the driveway on Monday and see what's in store for the follow-up.

George Davison:

That's a beautiful thing. You know, you found, you found something that you like, it's, doesn't sound like it's work anymore and you enjoy doing what you do. Yeah. And then nice is, uh, you know, we, some, we sleep a third of our life. We work as third and we have a third with our, you know, families and, you know, at Thailand that type of time. So finding what you like is a real important part of having a quality life, I believe. Congratulations on, uh, on accomplishing that. Um, do you believe there's anything in particular that helped you to find success?

Jim Levine, Regency Technologies:

Um, I would say without sounding too cliche, it was a family upbringing. Um, grew up close knit family, um, on the east side of Cleveland. Um, I I'm unique in the sense that I had four grandparents that were all born in Cleveland, Ohio. So, um, you know, most people of my generation had some grandparents that were either immigrants who came to this country, but I literally had four parents, four grandparents that were born in Cleveland. Uh, all of them started with nothing, um, became successful over their lives, taught the lessons of hard work and family. So, you know, like again, a lot of kids who are growing up don't necessarily realize it when they're kids or even young adults, but somewhere along the way, you sort of laugh inside and say, I must've been paying attention somehow because I'm doing a lot of the same things that I saw as I was growing up.

George Davison:

So would you say that your grandparents were mentors and if so, that's interesting. And then did you have any other mentors that you'd mentioned?

Jim Levine, Regency Technologies:

One in particular, um, my father's father that grandfather is somebody who I looked up to my entire life and I was very fortunate that he lived to 102 and, and he lived to 102 with full mental capacity, lived on his own, I mean, was playing golf three days a week. And he just broke a hip at 102 and ended up getting pneumonia. And that was it, but, but it was, he had a last life and I got to hear so many stories from him, uh, throughout the, you know, throughout his life, not just remembering when, but even when I was starting the business, he would come out and see it and give me advice on things. So really, really lucky to have him in my life. And then, uh, you know, there were plenty of other people, early managers that I had from companies that I was working at as a teenager and even right out of college, that taught me things. So, um, yeah, I was really lucky to have people in my life that sort of sports coaches, um, teaching me the value of hard work and teamwork and all those things. It really helps out build your confidence as you're younger. And as it kind of sends a little light on the subject that you'll make your way, you'll find your way, just keep working at it. Yup. Yeah, it's fine. And I also, uh, along the way while we were building the business too, um, I've been very fortunate, a wife who has been completely supportive and, uh, you know, I've seen plenty of situations where it's not the same, but she's been amazing. So for, we've been married for almost 30 years and from the day that we started the business, she's never second guessed. She never complained about working too late, um, was really a team player. So, you know, I consider a partner in the business. Oh, it's wonderful. It's wonderful to have that kind of support that are with you. Yep. A partner who's always in your corner and believes in you. Right. Yep. Makes it easier. Yes.

George Davison:

All right. So let's, um, touch you on a slightly different subject. Um, knowing what you know today, what advice would you give, you know, a young person who is entering into your industry, a young person entering into our particular industry, and I'll even broaden it a little bit into the recycling sustainability industry is, um, be prepared to get your MBA on the job because the recycling industry, a lot of people think of it in one way.

Jim Levine, Regency Technologies:

You know, they yellow vests and forklifts and shredders, and, but it's got everything. So you have to be prepared to be learning about finance, it, logistics, accounting, marketing, and sales, operations, health, and safety. And you have to be able to do it all while getting your hands dirty. So it's not just sitting back in a, in a boardroom or a nice office, looking at, uh, you know, graphs and charts and making decisions. It's very, very hands-on. So you have to be able to connect at the ground level of the business. And then you've also got to be able to do all those other things. So your business continues to grow. And you know, the back, I think back in the older days, the world of recycling was like re see piles of steel, just sitting there and rusting and whatnot, but the world of, um, recycling and technology has been now, it's been combined.

George Davison:

You've, you've pioneered a new industry. Can you look into the future? W you know, with us a little bit and project, what do you see in the world of recycling sustainability?

Jim Levine, Regency Technologies:

The importance of this as we go forward as a, as a group, how much time do we have, um, it it's, again, one of the reasons I think that I'm still very energized about the business is that, uh, you know, in a way you can be, especially when we talk about electronics, um, versus traditional scrap recycling with maybe non-ferrous metals and ferrous metals that tend to the constituent up commodities and products that come have longer lasting lives, where with electronics, it changes so fast. One of the, the luxuries of the business, if you will, is that you don't really have to think about what's going to happen next. You just let it happen. So being at the end of life, I can see what you might be using as technology today. And I know that in two to three years from now, we're going to be figuring out how to recycle that material, because you're going to be using the new thing. So whether it's this microphone that mixing board, these lights, it's all gonna change. So we're, we're just watching what happens. So part of what we do in looking at growth is what's happening in the world. So, uh, even watching your shows. So we talk about plastic. We know that plastic has got infinite potential in terms of improvement at this point in so many different ways. Some of them very obvious, some of them not obvious. We look at Evie batteries for cars. Well, the same chemistries that are in your cell phone battery are going to be in huge demand in a much bigger way than they've ever been by sheer volume as we move into electric vehicles.

George Davison:

So the cars of the next three years are basically giant computers with big batteries. Interesting. So we're already in negotiations with people with OEMs, auto manufacturers, people who are, uh, building the batteries that there's your, the cycle of, um, you know, the, the closed loop of recycling for the commodities that will go into electric vehicle batteries is going to be like, it's going to be like going back 150 years when the integrated steel mills started to right around here. Right. And it was the byproducts that were coming out of the steel making that were going right back into the mill to be used, to make steel, think of electronic vehicle batteries the same way. And it hasn't even started. So when we see the growth or we see, you know, we've looked down the road, we see things like that. That's wonderful. So, as we're talking through that area, would you say that the importance of recycling and drawing these very precious materials back out and putting new life to them through, uh, you know, by extracting them doing the recycling process? What, how much is that helping us not have to go and mine those materials and to go and find that elsewhere in the world? Um, how much is recycling adding to our ability to make new products, um, and not have to go and to the, let's say the forest and start to take out another mine or what, something to that effect. Yeah, yeah. Again, that's, it's a huge area to discuss, um, and just to keep things, uh, sorta timestamped. And this is, you know, it gets a little bit heady, but we have these conversations around our, our shop is that, uh, if you just look at what happened to the world in the last year, and you think about maybe how some of these things happened in the first place and, uh, how, how disease can spread and the movement of people and the carbon footprint that happens in so many areas of our lives.

Jim Levine, Regency Technologies:

We think of recycling as a nice thing. We think of it as this, you know, you put your, your recyclables into the blue bag and the nice people take it away and it gets sorted. And, you know, that's a great story, but, but really recycling is about common sense and economics. And, uh, I feel like in the last say 75 years, the world has gotten a little bit lazy with it because we've had so many natural resources at our fingertips and we consume them and we don't really think too much about it. We just think that we get what we want when we want it. And regardless of what part of the world it comes from, if they make it cheaper, we're going to buy it from there. And while a lot of people think that they want things that are grown local or made local, do they really want to pay what it costs to make those things? If they're not just being farmed out to all different parts of the world to be made at a lower cost. So I think it does ultimately have a big impact. And as we start to see people really wake up to, wow, maybe I do need to keep my footprint a little bit smaller. People start thinking about using less. And, you know, when we've talked about manufacturers who are making and selling things, whether it's electronics or automobiles, most of those companies aren't really that interested in making less, right? Sure. They want to make more, but there needs to be some kind of cultural shift to, to at least you reuse what we've made in the first place.

George Davison:

Interesting. So that could be a lot of opportunity there. A lot of innovation, it sounds like in that space of how to bring things at end of life, back into the, uh, in the world of business so that we can reuse it more, let's say, uh, many more times, right.

Jim Levine, Regency Technologies:

Uh, and create less impact. Sure. Especially we think of things like rare earth, metals, cobalt, lithium, these, these elements are only found in certain parts of the world. So now you start getting into geopolitical situations where if, if, uh, whether it's in China or Chile, do we own the rights to this material? Just because we're the United States and we want to make more Evie batteries or cell phone batteries than anybody we have to work with people. So, or do we become more dependent on creating sustainable recycling solutions to recover that material and reuse it that way? So that's where I, when I come back to saying recycling is about economics. People like to think of it as this nice idea, and it is, but if you think of it in a more basic way, it's just common sense and economics, and that's always been, and that always will be because if somebody can do something that's convenient and makes economic sense, typically you get more people's attention, right. And this good for everybody who's younger in this audience to understand if you, if you can use your observational skills and identify needs, come up with products or services, and you can do that at the right price. You're more than likely going to be helping others out there that will want your product or service.

George Davison:

Correct. So, okay. So let's, um, talk directly to them for a moment then, um, what, what classes would you tell a young person to focus on today to be career ready?

Jim Levine, Regency Technologies:

Well, kind of like all those different areas that I mentioned, if selfishly speaking to me the most well-rounded person that we can get as a little bit of everything. So, um, uh, definitely I think that everybody, uh, all young people today should be taking some kind of general accounting class. I think too many people sort of move past the numbers. And, uh, you know, we're constantly analyzing pounds and tons and pieces and dollars in, in doing time studies. How long does it take to process this material? How much electricity did we use? How much propane did we use in a forklift? How much shrink wrap did we use? So I think numbers are really important. In other words, absolutely, absolutely very underrated. Um, it is huge. So still big, big demand for programmers, um, network engineers, that whole, everything is moving to the cloud. Um, even in our business, everything is driven off of an ERP system. So, uh, when people think of the old recycling yard, um, so much of that is just gone today. I mean, even our forklift drivers are using RFID to weigh pallets before they go onto a shipping container.

George Davison:

So, uh, can you explain, are, you know, ERP and then RFI?'.

Jim Levine, Regency Technologies:

I deeply apologize. So, so, uh, an ERP is basically a system, a software system to run the business. So it's inventory management, it's purchase orders and sales orders, it's accounting, it's, uh, weighing material in and out of your operations and counting, manifest serial numbers, all the, all the data that flows in and out of the company we do through a centralized system.

George Davison:

Right. Okay. So, and that's in every business. So every business has systems that help it to run, and it's a way to put information in and then management can look at all this data and it helps them to navigate or steer the way into the future. Right. Correct. Very important. Yep. And then you mentioned RFID, could you mention to the audience what that is?

Jim Levine, Regency Technologies:

So it's basically using, uh, you know, if you think of your, uh, remote controls on television, your old remote controls before we had smart remotes is basically using radio frequency to connect with, uh, technology that's wireless. Um, so it's, it's allowing different in our scenario, it's allowing, um, material handlers to not have to get out of their vehicles to write things down on paper or put stickers on boxes. Everything is using QR codes, we're scanning to see what QR codes are. That's okay. I think if you said QR code and scanning, that goes, okay. Um, so, you know, just being able to capture information, using current modern technology, um, so people having that skill set to understand how to use those types of devices is big. So it's not just, um, traditional blue collar work without having some of these skills.

George Davison:

Right. Right. So y ou're mentioning, u h, you know, it sounds like science technology, you know, we're, we're looking at stem, science, technology, engineering, math, and, u h, so it sounds like that's important that you're seeing in, i n your field of, u h, enterprise.

Jim Levine, Regency Technologies:

Absolutely.

George Davison:

Okay. So if I could ask you to do one thing over again in your high school or early days, um, what would it be, what activity, um, would you choose to go back and do over again?

Jim Levine, Regency Technologies:

Okay. So, um, you know, as I think similar to other entrepreneurs where we try to find things, we, we, we tend to be a little compulsive, maybe certain, certain things. Um, when I was 33, yeah. 20 years ago, um, I started playing guitar and I started playing guitar because I have a son who's a musician, and I used to take him to trumpet lessons. And I would sit around the music shop and fiddle around with a guitar. And one day the owner of the store said, why don't you just start taking lessons? And I said, you know, it's a good idea. I just, I need something else to, you know, spend more the time that I don't have. Um, and I've been playing for 20 years. I play in a rock cover band in Cleveland, Ohio. And, uh, and I absolutely love it this last year kind of sucked because, you know, we didn't have a chance to play, but we're getting ready to play again. Um, and I found that by opening up that part of my, my brain and, and, and playing music, um, allowed me to get a healthy, mindful escape, you know, because even as much as I love what I do, sometimes you just have to do something else.

George Davison:

Sure.

Jim Levine, Regency Technologies:

And you need some time for yourself. So if I was able to go back in time, I would have started playing guitar much earlier.

George Davison:

Interesting. You know, it's a creator activities are released, you know, so when we work like we do, and if you have a hobby and that's a great way to, you know, just let your mind go and kind of drift into that creator space.

Jim Levine, Regency Technologies:

Right. And, uh, we see a lot of that, um, everything from writing to, um, like some of the music, uh, drawing, et cetera. So it's a good release and, you know, they do learn some of those things in school, but they do play a role later in life. Buying guitars is fun, too, a little addicting, but, you know, I'm glad to hear you like doing that.

George Davison:

You must have quite a collection by now pretty decent collection.

Jim Levine, Regency Technologies:

I'm still working on it though.

George Davison:

Hopefully you'll never stop. Uh, okay. So if we were to say, you know, again, we're going to take a peek into the future. What does your company look like in the future?

Jim Levine, Regency Technologies:

Um, I would say we will continue. I, again, without knowing for sure. I think some of the things I could point to is I think we'll have expansion along the way internationally, somehow. Um, you'll in one location in Cleveland, Ohio, and now having eight locations in the United States from Washington state, uh, Tampa, Florida. Um, we do business all throughout Europe. We do business in, uh, middle east Africa. We are doing business in Mexico and we've got great partners that we've worked with for a long time, but the more and more that we get involved with multinational companies, uh, I can see that that's going to be something that would most likely happen in our future.

George Davison:

That's great to hear well done. All right. So if we were going to offer a little bit of, um, uh, feedback to our audience about the importance of social skills, uh, how, if I'm looking at a basket of hard skills, let's say it in math, how important are the social skills in the world you're operating in, in your business?

Jim Levine, Regency Technologies:

It's huge. Um, and I probably should've put that number one because people's skills, uh, our managers, our leads, our supervisors. Uh, we have to have the ability to communicate. We've got, uh, people from Nepal, people from Mexico, people from Tibet, um, that work in our different organizations. Sometimes it's based on where our, our, uh, our facilities are. And we work with, uh, labor pools. We're working with the county people. It, and you have to have the ability to communicate at different levels throughout the organization. And as a manager, you have to be connected with people. They have to believe in you. You have to believe in them. You have to be a counselor. You have people who have their family issues.

George Davison:

Uh, so you've got to have that ability to connect with people because everything about our company starts with people and the financial, it's a very unique industry in the sense that, uh, I've never seen or heard of an industry like ours, where so much of the financial, um, model is in the hands of a labor pool.

Jim Levine, Regency Technologies:

Sometimes we think of labor pools as doing the tough stuff. And it's really the people who are up in the ivory tower that are making all the big financial gain decisions. But when we're out on a sorting line and we're separating copper from steel, from aluminum, from gold, we have to make sure we can't be everywhere. Those people in the, in the offices can't be everywhere. At one time, we have to make sure that the people on our floors understand what it is that they're doing because material comes in every single hour of every single day. And if you're, if you start wrong on the floor, it goes all the way through the machine and interesting the wrong way. So we have to be teaching and training, visual workplace, making sure that we have people who are multilingual managers that can really communicate. So we're not misinterpreting what we meant.

George Davison:

So language English, public speaking, collaboration, teamwork, those are all soft skills, uh, that you can gain some of that experience in your schools. Right? You can learn it on a sports field. You can, um, when you, if you were playing a guitar in a band, do you ever get to speak with the other members in your band, right. And, and create relationships? I think that's an important thing to mention, uh, as a young person, if you're, if your hard skills in classes and your grades are, you know, not all A's, uh, don't worry, uh, that's not the life isn't going to judge you that way. There are other skill sets that you, that you can have as well. Absolutely. And, uh, you know, me having an a, in some class, isn't going to get me through an interview with you if I was going to try to join your organization.

Jim Levine, Regency Technologies:

Correct. Yeah. So it's very important. I think that the audience understands that.

George Davison:

So how would you suggest, uh, students get hands on experience to build skills that would lead them toward a, let's say a good yeah. Adult life?

Jim Levine, Regency Technologies:

Well, I think, uh, I think working at a young age is, is, uh, is a great thing. Um, I, for one, I grew up in a family where at the time we were all 16 years old, it was expected that on top of playing sports and doing your schoolwork, it was, you should get a job and it should be a job working somewhere where it's not for a, for a family, um, or a real job, whether it's working at a carwash, um, you know, working at an it company, doing whatever. And, uh, I think that that's very important to, you know, a lot of times we'll hear people say, well, we just don't have the time because we're so wrapped up in doing one thing or another. But, um, I know that that was a big, a big part of my learning, getting hands-on experience and working with, uh, mentors that I didn't necessarily know, and didn't have a vested interest in my future and learning how the real world's going to work. And I would, I would encourage that we did, uh, early on, um, just one interesting aside to sort of connect that. Um, we started doing some, uh, AP environmental science field trips. Okay. Um, and I just, our business was in the same community that I lived in and had a connection with some of the people at the schools and, uh, hooked up with the AP environmental science teacher who asked when, when she had heard about the business, would you ever do this? And first thing I thought was, man, bunch of kids running around, you know, a recycling operation might not be the smartest thing in the world, but we, we did it. And it was a huge success. And we did it for probably I'm going to say five years in a row.

George Davison:

Nice.

Jim Levine, Regency Technologies:

The interesting part of it is we started getting these kids who were asking if they could do summer interns. Yes. Never had done a summer internship before. Once again, we're like, why not? You know, what could possibly go wrong? And so we did it a few times in my favorite story of all is that we have a young, he's still young, but we had a 16 year old who came through our summer internship program. And, uh, he is now running our Phoenix operation at 30 years old.

George Davison:

Wonderful.

Jim Levine, Regency Technologies:

He, you know, took, it took a few years to go to college. And after college, he was figuring out what to do. And, uh, one of our managers had spotted them working at a fast food restaurant, you know, as a part-time gig while he was looking for a job and said, why don't you come back for us? We're growing in. He came back to work for us and has been with us ever since.

George Davison:

Great story.

Jim Levine, Regency Technologies:

Yeah. So, you know, there's, there's all kinds of opportunities to get involved at a young age if there's the right connection.

George Davison:

So do you believe anybody can be successful?[inaudible]

Jim Levine, Regency Technologies:

I guess at some level. Okay. So if they apply themselves, businesses are always looking for people that can help to achieve the objectives, aren't they? Yeah. Yeah. I mean, again, I think a lot of it depends on, you know, what what's the overall situation, but I think that, I think there are a lot of people who fall through the cracks because there isn't the right connection. There isn't the right sort of net to, to grab people. And, uh, that's another area where we've been working with, uh, we've been working with programs, uh, to attract people, um, to work in our tech centers where we're doing repair of electronics. And what we've found is that there are, there are a lot of people with, um, let's say, uh, Asperger's disease who might not be able to interview well, they might not have those social skills that you were talking about, but man, some of the smartest people that you'll ever meet and, and want to focus on repairing things, fixing things, they have that, uh, that intuitive sense to do a skill that we're looking for.

George Davison:

So sometimes if we're looking what I would call mainstream, it's hard to find somebody who wants to work in a warehouse and, and use technical skills. People want to do things that are today. They think of, you know, making an app or doing something that's a little bit cleaner, I'll say. And, uh, so we've had really good success working with some programs in some of our, uh, marketplaces to bring people into our operation like that. And it's just amazing to me. Um, we're not even on a, uh, an adjusted comparison basis for production that these people produce at a higher rate than what you would call somebody who's mainstream. Interesting. Yeah. And so let's talk about that a little more. I think you're touching on a good lesson because I've seen some of that as well in my career where some people that are marginalized, you know, they're just considered not all that intelligent. They don't like, maybe they don't speak so well. Um, they can't do math well, and they get kind of put into a bucket of lower performance.

Jim Levine, Regency Technologies:

You know, I think at times it's almost as though that can be considered a strength because you have to work harder and you know it, and because of that, um, you're willing to put in extra time or to reach out in a different way to try and find your way in life. And whereas somebody who has most things already working for them, they don't navigate that way. And so sometimes a weakness can be actually a strength is what I'm trying to get across.

George Davison:

Absolutely. Yeah. U m, so, okay. Let's, let's continue on then. U m, if you were going to have a suggestion out there, u m, for, for audience, what kind of skills would I need to become a good maker or a good contributor inside your organization? We call them maker tips, u m, here, but do you have any tips that would be insightful for our young people about making?

Jim Levine, Regency Technologies:

So regardless of what position you'd take, ah, I shouldn't say that most of the accounting people don't do this, but anybody who's going to get into, I'd say that the nuts and bolts part, whether it's sales, marketing, logistics, um, or an operations, we put them into our, what we call our triage department. We'll put people into that department at least for a month, sometimes for two months, it doesn't matter what the pay scale is. Doesn't matter because what we want to do is we want to, we feel like that's sort of the nerve center of where everything starts. And, and it's amazing that you can see how quickly, again, I don't care what college education somebody had, what language somebody speaks. It's an area where you can quickly see that somebody gets it or doesn't get it. And when I say get it, I don't mean it gets it like understands it, but gets it like I'll do it and has the ability to see things happening and understand why they're happening. Because it's like all kinds of traffic and things going in and things going out and everything from the technology to the physical sortation. And, um, you can see people's wheels spinning, you know, turning when, uh, when they're in that department and you'll see some people you can sort of naturally see where people are gonna gravitate towards in the company. Um, and that's a lot of how we make our decisions on where we think somebody would be a good fit based on what we see and that, that one or two month training period on the floor, it makes a lot of sense. So they're in there, it's a very beginning stage of how your business operates. They're getting their hands dirty and they're learning the basics, not being afraid to get your hands dirty.

George Davison:

Yep. There you go. That's the one. All right. So important. No, premadonnas right, right. Everybody has to learn the basics. Yep. Okay. So if you haven't, if you had an innovation lab at Regency, what would be something you would teach in your innovation lab?

Jim Levine, Regency Technologies:

Um, uh, I'm trying to think of the best way to say it, but I would say like reverse engineering things, you know, we, we take things apart for a living. So whether we're going to recycle it or we're going to repair it and reuse it, um, we like to take things apart, see how they were put together in the first place. What, what is that material made of? What is it, what are the elements that are there? How does it come apart? Hit it with a hammer, drop a shear on it. Um, test it with memory tested without memory. Uh, we go through a lot of batteries of examination. We do a lot of time and material studies.

George Davison:

Interesting.

Jim Levine, Regency Technologies:

So, um, that's a big part of how we move forward. So we do have, it's not necessarily one innovation lab, but we want innovation and testing going on all the time that we encourage our managers. If they see something that we haven't seen before, again, going back to that nature of electronics is changing so fast. We can't possibly know what's coming in every single day. So we have to spot things and then stop them and say, oh, we've got a new species. What's it made of? What was it in? How did, who did it come from? So there's a spirit of that kind of innovation from reverse engineering things. So true manufacturing is what we call it.

George Davison:

Okay. So that's a very important part of, uh, I believe you're right from the perspective of an innovation lab. We believe as well, learning how to take things apart. And, um, what's in there. How does it work? Why does it work that way? And you can keep going, like, how did they get to that 9 99 price point once, you know, what all these parts are in here. So there there's a real system and formula for figuring out how did this product come to be? And then of course the opposite for your business. It's what is in this thing and how do I break it all the way down there was basics, separated and reuse, um, as much as possible that makes economic sense.

Jim Levine, Regency Technologies:

Correct. And doing it safely.

George Davison:

Yes. Environmentally friendly. That's great. Yeah. All right. So let's say for a moment, we had an opportunity for you to speak directly to our, uh, to the folks who are creating the curriculum today for our students. If you had a suggestion, uh, w would you have anything you'd like to whisper in their ear to say, Hey, you can help. If you could help get prepared the kids a certain way, it would be really helpful.

Jim Levine, Regency Technologies:

My opinion, again, I would say that, um, I think we've in a lot of scenarios and even in our own company, um, we, we try to preach common sense and economics. So you've heard me say that a couple of times. And I think, uh, I see it all the time. I see it in big companies that are clients of ours. I see it in other industries where, um, things happen that don't necessarily make sense, but then they happen and people just sort of feed into them and do them because that's what everybody is doing. We've been very, very committed to, uh, if something doesn't make sense, if one plus one does not equaling two, there's gotta be a problem. Even if it means that we might be having financial gain from it, we will walk it back upstream to our clients and say, you know, maybe it's a shipping situation. You know, you're shipping something from California to Ohio because you have a system that said, you're only approved to process this material at our Ohio location. And you're spending 35% more than you should. And even though you're paying me for it, we could do this in Olympia, Washington. Why don't we get your people to approve that site? And if you feel that there's some shortcomings we'll invest in, let's do that to make sense. So, and a lot of times people will say like, well, why are we doing that? You're pushing, you know, everything's working just fine. So I would say to young people, don't be afraid to call out where there are shortcomings, take a look at things. And if something doesn't make sense, or you're not sure why don't be afraid to unpack it and try to figure out a better way, because in the end, even though it might on a short-term basis, not benefit you, if you're continuously operating from a mindset that like this should make sense, one plus one should equal two. And if it doesn't, you know, maybe there's a reason, maybe there's a short-term reason, but ultimately it's going to catch up with you as well said.

George Davison:

Yeah, I, the way you're phrasing that. And I, and I, I want to make sure I, that very thankful that you were, uh, giving your time today, uh, to our students who, uh, were trying to figure life out, you know, so, uh, happy to do it. Uh, Jim Levine from Regency. Thank you very much for visiting with us today. Um, and that's another episode of what company started here. Thank you everybody. Thank you. I do.