Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/686649
June 2016 • SMT Magazine 67 Goldman: Have you had congressmen come and visit in any of your other locations? Mathur: Yes, we like to invite them—there are lots of benefits to that. First, they get to under- stand who we are and a little about our indus- try. One of the benefits, which is really at the top of our list now, is when people like Mr. Ryan visit, is giving our people a chance to meet lo- cal leadership and ask questions at a town hall meeting. They likely would not otherwise get this chance. We may have anywhere between 200–500 people in a Creation business unit and this is a way for us to bring the community to our team. That's another benefit of coming to work with our company. Goldman: So actually getting a congressman to your facility came about because of coming to IM- PACT? Mathur: Yes, when we meet these fellows, we're always trying to figure out the next step, and one of the next steps is to say, "Why don't you come visit us?" That actually became an initia- tive that John Hasselmann and his team run now. We measure how many visits we have, we have targets and a process. We've invited Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of Canada, we've invit- ed President Obama, and he wrote us a letter back saying "No thank you, but Penny Pritzker, the Secretary of Commerce, will be available to come meet with you." Goldman: Nice! Mathur: Yes. We're finding that we get some recognition, our people can meet the leader- ship, and that's a good thing. Goldman: And conversely, your congressman learns a little bit about you and about the industry. Mathur: Absolutely, that's right. Many of them completely understand what we're do- ing and some of them have no idea what we do. It becomes especially clear when they take a tour, though, because it's hard to ex- plain exactly what we do in a conference set- ting like this. Goldman: A picture is worth a thousand words, but I'm sure a tour is worth a gazillion words. Mathur: For sure. When you see 200–300 peo- ple making state-of-the-art medical equipment, which is an area Creation specializes in, and you see an incubator we made where a baby is brought after she is born, or a CAT scan ma- chine that we designed, or an ultrasound ma- chine that we worked on, that's very powerful. Goldman: It sounds like lots of good things hap- pened today then. Mathur: Absolutely. Goldman: How many congressmen did you meet with? Mathur: Formally, three. Goldman: Of course everybody has their own three that they meet, I guess. Mathur: Everyone has their own three. I feel like because I've been coming to IMPACT for a while, I try to not be as vocal. I think others need to participate and feel like they've been a part of it. But our message is getting across, and I certainly believe the view that it's the authentic person who makes the biggest difference. You can't just hire someone to come in your place and represent whatever it is you believe in. Goldman: Excellent! Any final thoughts? Mathur: I think politics are always dynamic. One of the things I'm learning is that while we've done all of this, you can't ever stop or let your foot off of the accelerator. If anything, I think we need to do more of it in more places. Creation Technologies is a global organization with global customers, so there's Europe, Asia and other places where we can get involved and make a difference. Goldman: Bhawnesh, thank you so much. Mathur: Thank you. SMT