00:00:11,839	S1:
Welcome to Bismarck Insights with mayor Mike Schmitz, a transparent and engaging conversational dive into meaningful topics impacting local government in Bismarck, North Dakota. Bismarck Insights is dedicated to removing barriers between the city of Bismarck and the citizens we serve every day.

00:00:32,600	S2:
Welcome to Bismarck insights on Bismarck Mayor Mike Schmidt. And today we are focusing on another community partner, um, within within the city of Bismarck and frankly, the whole community of Bismarck, Mandan and Martin County, uh, bobcat, which is a, you know, people probably remember a lot of things that bobcat was before. And, uh, or at least what the plant was before. And with us is Matt Sager, director of innovation for Bobcat or Doosan Bobcat. So, Matt, why don't you let the audience know who you are, how you got to be, and the role you are? Yeah.

Thanks. 00:01:07,510	S3:
Mayor Schmitz. First, thanks for having me. Uh, very excited to be here to talk a little bit about, uh, something I'm very passionate about. And that is Bobcat Company. Uh, we are Doosan Bobcat, uh, owned by, uh, Doosan Parker, but incorporated as Doosan Bobcat, a US entity. Uh, I've been with bobcat for my whole career, so I have a pretty good understanding of where we've been, what we've gone through, and where we're going. So I'm excited to talk to you a little bit about that. And my name is, like I said, Matt Sasser, I'm the director of innovation. I focus on innovation acceleration at bobcat here in Bismarck.

00:01:42,549	S2:
So let's let's talk about innovation because this is what happens here in Bismarck. And I don't know, very many people really understand it. But like your team helps create stuff that is innovative and new and delivering a piece of equipment in a different way and doing things in a different way. So I think it's really important for people to understand that and how that process works.

00:02:07,659	S3:
Right? Yeah, that's really good. So our focus and then maybe let me back up and kind of start from the beginning. So I've been with bobcat a long time. I moved to Bismarck in 2007. And at the time I was director of part of our supply chain, and I managed materials from factory to factory, and we didn't have an innovation team. We didn't have anyone at the company with innovation in their title. And as things evolved. 0809 2010 2011 2012 I was asked to take over the responsibility of designing a new space for bobcat space that would be used for innovation R&D at another level. And so we did that. We started benchmarking companies that were outside of our industry, and we created what we have today as the acceleration Center. And in the Acceleration Center, we do a lot of things innovation, technology development and exactly what you describe, Mayor Schmitz, in that creating things that may not exist yet in our market, we see things that are trending in other companies, and we try to take those trends and incorporate them into our products somehow to benefit our customers. So we developed what we call our innovation process. Innovation accelerated. And in that process we do create concepts. We love the idea of taking a concept, kind of what the auto industry does, where they have their their big auto show in Detroit, and they show new concepts that may never come to fruition. We understand the importance of innovation in using tactics, of innovating and disrupting to test the market and kind of tease our customers, but also teach them a little bit about what might be possible. And one of the themes I love to focus on is making the unbelievable believable. And you can't do it by talking to people. You have to show them. You have to make things. let them experience it. And then there's that aha moment that happens. So we do that here in Bismarck. Our focus as a company of all compact equipment for R&D and innovation starts here. It happens in all of our facilities. We don't call our building here the Innovation center, because we have innovation activities in all of our buildings across the country and across the globe. So we accelerate innovation. And our R&D teams are located here in Bismarck alongside innovation.

00:04:24,730	S2:
So let's talk about how that process kind of happens out of the acceleration center, because I think that's really important for our community to understand and what it actually is meaning for our community, ultimately the spin off effect of that. But, you know, I've been out there and I know that the building is there, but people don't know what's inside that building. And then, you know, you go from the concept that someone had in their brain and you're actually able to kind of test it somehow.

00:04:54,410	S3:
Yeah.

00:04:55,290	S2:
Right. Right here.

00:04:56,250	S3:
Yeah. right here in Bismarck. That's awesome. And so that's true. So first off, the facility here in Bismarck has just over 400 people. This isn't the factory. Our factory on 26th Street is separate where we manufacture excavators and attachments. At the acceleration center, just under 200,000ft². We have an office of a next generation office on how we work. And there's a lab, 100,000 square foot lab where we test, evaluate the prototype and innovate on different products. Um, for bobcat. And then also inside the acceleration center is we call it our indoor arena. And this is important for North Dakota. I've lived here my whole life. And we know what happens in the winter. Everything freezes. Yeah, very difficult to dig and test things outside. So in the past we would ship our products to Arizona, our proving ground, where we would do that test and evaluation. And it would take a lot of time, uh, a lot of time, a lot of money to shift things back and forth and to benefit our customers. We could accelerate development by having that indoor space here. So when you drive by or if you see pictures of the acceleration center inside is not a production facility. We make prototypes, we make concepts, and we do things differently to benefit our customers in an accelerated way. We want to help them solve problems, help evolve our product platforms quicker than we have in the past. And we've proven capable. The first product we developed out of the acceleration Center was the MT 55. Um, and beyond that then became the R series loader, that loader.

00:06:29,910	S2:
So why don't you explain to people what both those are.

00:06:32,709	S3:
Good. Thank you. Good point. So MMT is a mini track and this is for many teams for track. And then 55 is the model name. And it's a small machine that we build and sell to compact construction owners. So that's one of our products. And you can check out our products online if you're curious. Anyone's curious about what they are. But our skid steer loader and our track loader is our core product. And then our compact excavator is our secondary core product from a volume perspective. Excavators are the diggers. They have the arm that digs trenches and whatnot. And they're made here in Bismarck.

00:07:06,220	S2:
So. So now I interrupted you, but now you can talk about how that that concept came about and how probably how fast really from a market standpoint, it occurred versus traditional when we built the building.

00:07:20,139	S3:
The theory was if we have a space to develop and bring all of our resources together, we could really take advantage and leverage the core of bobcat. You know, we've always been an innovative company, but we've we needed a place to leverage that, that skill and that capability. So in this building, we're doing things differently. We brought people together multiple functions, not just engineering. It's not an engineering center. Of those 400 people we have working there, half of them are engineers. The other half are other functions that are necessary for product development. So we developed a small loader in nine months from design to production. We started that machine down the line here in Bismarck in 2015, and it was designed literally nine months prior, so February to November. And then at the same time we were learning from that and we started developing the R series platform for skid steer and track loaders. And that product came right out of Bismarck. It was designed here, prototyped here, developed here in that arena, outside that space, in the in the Commerce Center. And we utilized that location to improve our product and then bring it to market. And that's the way we started. And I can tell you today, we're we're expanding that capability much further than current product with innovation principles and disruptive technologies. And I'd be happy to share more about that here in a little bit.

00:08:39,610	S2:
So if you were to take what would have been traditional time frame to bring a product from an idea to market. I mean, nine months sounds incredibly fast to me. I can't believe traditionally that would have occurred anywhere close to that?

00:08:53,879	S3:
No. And I'm glad you caught that. I said that on purpose because it was a very, very different time frame and process for vodka. Typically you're 2 to 5 years, and typically it's on the five year end of that life cycle because you have to manage the the design and the iterations of prototyping voice of customer. Very important. And then all the validation required on a machine. So what we did is we tested some of those theories internally. What do we know already about the way that steel structures interact with ground engaging equipment. And we use what we knew to shrink that timeline. We took out some of the waste inside that timeline and prove that we could do it and provide a product, or develop a product that was as durable as liked by customers, or even more so. And we took over a market and we became the number one market shareholder in that market from almost from nothing. You know, we had a presence, but we took it over with that product and it's a huge market for us today.

00:09:54,309	S2:
So that that talks about that. But now. You know, go into further how, you know the innovation center acceleration is is benefiting uh do some bobcat and in its customers. Um, as we look today that was you know, you know, ten years ago, 11 years ago already. It doesn't seem like that long ago.

00:10:17,350	S3:
But yeah, it's crazy how much time has has progressed forward and what we've learned in that timeframe. And the first thing I'll tell you is we did some things right accidentally, partly because we hadn't changed a lot. That facility is very similar to how we started. We've added workspace and we've evolved how our employees work. It's a backpack in backpack facility for offices, and that was very disruptive for our employees. Prior. We had traditional offices, cubicles, and people would come in and they would work in their area, and then they would leave at the end of the day and maybe not interact with a lot of other employees. Today, we're encouraging interaction based on unassigned seating, backpacking, and almost working like you would if you were in college. And that was one of the tests of the theory that we had, was, let's create a space to work that invites that chance encounter, that invites that ability for our employees to work differently. So that was a big one for us. So inside the building, we're we're we've changed a lot of how we test and evolve the validation process for product. How we work hasn't changed much. But today, the way that there's a lot of IP or intellectual property with how we test parts of the machine, how we test the whole machine, we used to send all of that work out outside the state because we couldn't do it here today. That's all done at the Acceleration Center in Bismarck, and it saved us a lot of logistics time, but more so it's given us the ability to improve our designs, uh, accelerated in an accelerated way. And it's benefited. I mean, we've grown tremendously. We started out in the acceleration center with 145 people. And the challenge was, how are we going to grow in North Dakota? Well, we love challenges at Bobcats, part of our core, and we've done it. You know, we have almost 400 people in that stand facility doing things differently, working. Um, we made there, made it through Covid and learned a lot about how we can use technology to help us. And it's exciting. Every day is different and everything is new with how we work. And our product is changing.

00:12:19,899	S2:
And it's not just always brand new product, it's also taking existing pieces of equipment and finding a new way to have that piece of equipment function or deliver deliver what is needed. You know, AI has changed a lot of stuff in this world. And and having to be able to run a machine without somebody sitting on top of it.

00:12:40,220	S3:
Yeah, that's a really good point. You know, our machines are very similar today to how they were 50 years ago. And we'll be soon celebrating 70 years as a company. In 1958 we started and our product is still compact, still has wheels or tracks, and it's a tool carrier. So how do you improve a product that carries tools to do work? Well, efficiency is a big one. Durability is of course a big one. But technology is really changing. And you mentioned AI and that is something that's relevant to the construction industry and to Bobcat in Bismarck. How do we use AI to change the experience the customer has in our machine or with our machine? I'm here to tell you that the days of you having to be in a machine to operate it. There's a future where that isn't necessary. And one of the products we featured at the CES show in January, the Consumer Electronics Show, biggest show in Las Vegas every year. And it's typically framed around consumer technology. We're construction company, you know, and we were like, let's go there and let's show some really cool technology and shock some people that aren't our customers. Well, we did it again this year and we featured a product we call rogue X three. It's a CableACE all electric track loader, and there's no cab. There's nowhere to sit. So you have to operate it by remote. And we developed an app on your phone you can use to drive your machine. Very simple user interfaces. People will love it and it's available for sale. And we use that to drive that machine. And it's also fully autonomous ready. So using cameras, sensors, GPS for guidance, things like that are there. Those technologies are available. We're testing them. Our customers may not be totally ready for them, but our product is ready and we're proven is capable and it's believable. And now AI comes into this. And how do you use AI to help your machine learn as it's doing jobs to then help the customer be more efficient, lower the cost of doing bids, lower the cost of owning that equipment. Um, workforce is the challenge as well. Um, 40% of that construction industry workforce is set to retire in the next five years. 40%. It's a huge.

00:14:50,789	S2:
Number.

00:14:51,110	S3:
Big number. You know, and so we're trying to figure out how to manage that. With our current product, our current customer base, and still grow. So we have some ideas on how to do that that'll help our our customers be more efficient and not have to stress about that. I need six people, but I can do the same amount of work, maybe with four using new technologies. And if I had the ability to hire people, I still want to use them, of course, but, um, use technology to help conquer that, that challenge.

00:15:18,190	S2:
And we're all faced with that. It doesn't really matter what the profession or our function is. Um, you know, I see it in my world as an accountant, CPA, but, you know, I think I think there are going to be enhancements that will be available that actually probably increase safety as well. Mhm. As a result of that and you know, knowing that, you know, our demographics is as a nation and in the world the age of individuals is where we have this bubble moving through. And that's part of that 40%. Retiring in the next five, ten years? Yeah. So let's talk about some of the partnerships you've got in town and one in particular I know there's a fire department partnership. And and what's that all about?

00:15:59,220	S3:
That's a fun one. You know, the fire department. I don't know how they got wind of what we were doing other than things like this where we talked about it. But they reached out to us a number of years ago and were interested in trench training in the winter. Again, our ground is frozen and doing training is important. Encouraging training of our employees, not bobcat but other companies employees is a big part of what we do. Right. Every company has this need. Fire department said yeah, we we potentially could use a space like bobcat has in this arena. 35,000 square foot. Uh, it's an area that is filled with class five material. Class five is a dirt rock combination. Use it for framing concrete structures and pads in construction. We dug out 12 foot of that Uh, native material and fill it with class five. So right now you can go in and dig a hole ten feet deep and it's all the same, and you can fill it back in. It's very compatible. Fire department said, can we come over and do trench training? And we didn't know what that was at the time. But what they do is they come in and we use our equipment and dig a big trench, and then they use that to train the fire department crew on, on how to safely rescue a person if they get stuck in a trench that they're digging or prevent that occurrence from happening. So they came out to the Acceleration Center probably five years ago, the first time a small group did some training for a day. And since then it's grown into a full week, and they're bringing in crews from all across the state. We've got Williston, we've got Grand Forks, we've got Fargo, of course, Bismarck and the fire chief has been extremely happy with the amount of learning that happens in that short amount of time inside a climate controlled environment where they can dig and trench, fill it in and change it trench again and then train their people. And we don't really get involved other than prepping the area for them, and we donate that space in that time to the community because that's important. Yeah. You know.

00:17:53,769	S2:
So that's a that's a great example of what I'll call a public private partnership, which is creating safety for our communities across the state. And potentially even, I suppose we could be outside the state with some of those because we have border towns, right? Yep, yep. And so that's a unique private public partnership. But it's a great way to to give back to the communities. And we really appreciate that. I know that the fire chief certainly does. And all of his team members. Um, are there other partnerships you'd like to talk about that you know, Bobcats certainly is extremely involved in the city of Bismarck, obviously between the acceleration center and the plant. We have a large group of individuals who are working in our community for the organization.

00:18:40,930	S3:
Absolutely. And thank you for that opportunity. I think it's important that everyone understands that. At bobcat, we care deeply about the community that we that we work in and that we live in. I'm a Bismarck native. I went to Bismarck High School and and then I left to go to college. And then I came back, you know, raised my family here. And our business is a very, um, a priority for us is giving back to the community. And we do that in a lot of ways. Stem is a big one. So the science, technology, engineering, math, core functions and how we work with our schools. Um, it was a really exciting back in honestly, 2016, 2017 working with Bismarck Public Schools and former leader of that Bismarck Public Schools, Tamara Wilson. And at the time, we helped her design and develop features of Legacy High School. Based on how we developed the Acceleration Center, we partnered with schools. We want to teach kids. We want to help them understand job applications, not just engineers. Any kid that in high school that's curious about how to do work. And in a business like bobcat, Whether it's a technician doing work, whether it's an assembler working in the factory. We have almost a thousand employees in the factory here in Bismarck. And those jobs are just critical to our business. And we partner with Bismarck State College. We partner with the University of Maryland, different institutions around town and beyond high school to train employees to work for us, to train students to become employees that work for us. It's really important in how that interaction occurs. So it's it's like a quid pro quo. We work together and it's not contractual. We just enjoy that giving back. And then we naturally have institutions like Bismarck Public schools or colleges coming and looking for interactions. So robotics events are very popular. We've done training at the Acceleration Center. We've just donated our our space for students to come in and do work. And we've had our engineering leadership help mentor kids. Those are some examples. And there's also business examples where we've used our facility for again training on equipment companies like City Air Mechanical, very interested in having their employees come in and learn how to drive our equipment in a safe place the right way, you know, in a controlled area. We love to donate time. We love to donate equipment. We want to see our product out there. You know, white iron is really important to us. And, you know, we we build it here in North Dakota. We want to make sure it's around. And our employees are very passionate about our brand. And we want that to spread through the community. And we want people to love it like we do. So we try to encourage that, that involvement.

00:21:16,660	S2:
Good. So I want to twist that a little bit, because I also know that bobcat brings in a lot of interns, and they come from all over the probably all over the world potentially, I guess. And, um, you know, from a community standpoint, that's great for us. But then, you know, what? What does bobcat do to try to get those people engaged? So they actually become our employees right here in Bismarck, or your employees and our residents Aw, man. Man, I'm not. I shouldn't cut out, man now because that's very part. Yeah. And then conversely, what can the city of Bismarck and Mandan and the community do to help keep those people here?

00:21:53,849	S3:
I love that question. Yes, interns and co-ops are very important to our business. We bring in around 150 co-ops every year on two different cycles. So January through August and then May through December, and they come from local universities. You know, Fargo has a big university that we pull from Grand Forks, South Dakota, Montana regionally. But recently, I would say probably in the last 5 to 7 years, as our business has become more, uh, focused around expansion beyond just regional. We've we've become very accustomed to not only attracting talent, but retaining talent, like you said. So a couple examples. So we work with the university out in California called Harvey Mudd. Harvey Mudd is very similar to MIT out East. It's a technical school, and our CEO, Scott Park, went to school at Harvey Mudd, so we're familiar with it. We brought several of those employees or students to Bismarck to work on our team for, I think it was for three months. One of them we hired full time, and he came to live here, and he lived here and worked at bobcat for 18 months, I believe. And then he unfortunately decided to leave him. He started a business and he moved in. Entrepreneurs move around a lot. Yeah, but that news spread and it became a big deal for bobcat as an attraction. Ooh, North Dakota people want to come here. They want to experience something outside of the busy big metropolises on the East and West Coast. So we're hiring kids, hiring them because they're paid from schools in Texas, California, out in Boston, Southeast and Florida. You know, we're getting attractions from big universities that are big time into engineering. But I'll tell you, you know, our core still comes from the regional schools. We hire a ton of engineers out of Ndsu. A lot of kids are at the South Dakota State School of Mines is a big one. Um, Iowa State is another big one. And these kids come to work for us. And like you said, we want them to become employees. So what we do is we bring them in. We treat them like family members. We give them projects to work on. Show them that the brand bobcat is as important as the product that we we produce. And a lot of kids figure out ways to come back. Parents aren't so happy about it in a lot of cases, because then their their kids aren't coming home. But I don't know the percentage, but it's big. It's a big number. We employ a co-op. It's almost like an interview. And when they graduate, you know, we're going to give them an offer to come work for us.

00:24:20,789	S2:
So what what can the community do to help keep those students that are in that co-op program or who are interns, maybe coming back? Yeah. To have them stay here, especially those who are originally from Bismarck Mandan area, but they might be from Minneapolis. They could be from Fargo. Yeah. Um. You know Iowa. Texas. What do we need to do as a community? Because I think that's part of a partnership. And, you know, it's it's something that my wife and I have been very adamant about, initiative of welcoming people in. But, you know, what do we do to, you know, what do we need to do? What amenities do we need to make sure we have?

00:24:57,019	S3:
Yeah, that's a good question. And we ask our kids that often. And the Bismarck Chamber EDC has done some work in an intern program for that purpose in the summer. They'll host events at Larks Games and bring all these kids together to not only work or not work, but kind of play outside of work experience interns from other companies. Because Bob, guess not the only one, of course. And let them know that there's other kids their age here and there's opportunities to to have fun outside of work. So that's one of them. Give them an opportunity to have fun doing something, um, keep them busy. And the downtown environment is big. A lot of kids live in apartments, and they don't want to live out in the outskirts. They want to live where the action is because they don't want to have a car. They don't want to have to drive. Places they want to be able to get around easily. And that's part of the culture of the university. Students that are coming out right now, less interested in owning things, more interested in having access to things.

00:25:50,339	S2:
Experiences, private.

00:25:51,339	S3:
Experiences, a good one. So on the river environment is really cool. People that don't know about it when they come here in the summer, they're like, wow, this is actually a lot of fun. Uh, give me a way to experience it without having to buy a boat. Uh, so downtown River, um, just recreation in general, whether it's indoor basketball, outdoor pickleball, tennis, activities like that these kids are interested in these sports are coming back for these, um, 18, 19 year olds that, uh, maybe there was a period of time where that was less interesting. But when it's available, they're interested in it, and if it's available for them, then they're going to want to stay. That's step one. Step two then, is a lot of these kids. It doesn't take them long to find a partner. And then they want to have kids and they want to have a family. And the benefit we have in this community is very family oriented. So focus on that next. So it's not just one thing, it's the right. It's a kid thing. And and then it's having kids.

Yep. 00:26:47,930	S2:
And and you know I, I know that it certainly is something we need to continue to work on. And the amenities component is very important. But I think it's important for our citizens that are here to understand, you know, as we as we mature as a community, we need to continue to have the young people coming in. And what is it going to take for them to stay? And I think we're we're extraordinarily blessed when it comes to the family component, because we have great public schools, we have great private schools. We have three wonderful higher ed institutions in this community. So they don't have to leave if they don't want to. And we're very blessed. And then we have the river. Yeah. What else can we ask for? And a great hunting and fishing for those people. So as we look into the future, as we have to look at the back and find what the trends are, but the future is really what keeps us sustained. What are some opportunities that you see coming in your industry?

00:27:43,759	S3:
Yeah, that's a that's a fun one. And that's an area I focus a lot of my life's work on is what's next. What's that? Whether it's technology or a theme. And at bobcat, it's really exciting to work for a company that's progressive and supports that type of thinking. Um, love busting paradigms. But I'll tell you this the element of AI in our equipment is going to change how our machines operate on job sites, and we're going to announce a little bit more of that coming up here in March at the Con Expo show in Vegas. It's a big show for bobcat every three years. So we're going to talk about what's next for our product, but more so it's about what's next for the customer in the product. We want that user experience to improve so that you're able to get in as a novice and work like you're an expert. Things like that are important using technology, automation, not full autonomy necessarily, because that's always scary for people. Not fully electric. You know, we've experimented in this. You know, we have launched the T7, which is a fully electric machine. But what do what's ready today versus five years from now, 20 years from now where things are going to change a lot.

00:28:51,549	S2:
Well, we can't even imagine what it's going to be in 20 years.

00:28:54,670	S3:
Six months ago, AI wasn't really even as physical as it is today. And you know, you write a paper, you write a a letter. You can almost do this in seconds using ChatGPT or Copilot and whatnot. So the industry is going to change as technology evolves. But there's also going to be a leveling. I think that happens in that technological advancement where people are acceptance of it is going to limit some of its growth. And, you know, automotive is is usually where we look to future trends. But, you know, with electric vehicles like a Tesla and whatnot, they're driving automatically, autonomously. It's becoming more accepted. Well, we're trying to get there in construction but not full autonomy. Like I said, features simple things that are difficult, like trenching. What if I could push a button and have it do a trench automatically and do it a certain width and a certain depth quicker? Um, drawing up a landscape plan and using a a mower to mow grass autonomously, you know, not take away the fun part, take away the part that's really difficult for a business to hire people for or to manage eight hours a day, or that's what we're looking for.

00:30:01,019	S2:
And I tend to agree with you. I think, you know, autonomous vehicles are are here, but I think their application is still going to be somewhat limited. Mhm. Um, you know, there's there's just some features that are still scary for people. And until, until it gets there we're not going to really trust it. But I also think that, you know there's going to be a day for, for me or for all of us that, you know, I, I might be able to pick up the phone and have some, some doctor be able to tell me what's wrong. Well, I'm sitting right in my chair in my house. Or as we age out and we can't drive anymore. Mobility is a big issue and people still want to get someplace, but they don't. You know, if we're not comfortable driving or we shouldn't be, driving in a vehicle can get us there. Yeah, that's that is an opportunity. Scary as it might be, because I get a little freaked out when I see a guard go by what? Doesn't have a driver.

00:30:54,569	S3:
Person in there.

00:30:55,450	S2:
But, you know, that's that's all. That's all good. Yeah. As we look to the future and today, we've talked a lot about some internship stuff and stuff. But what do you think the workforce. We got we got to be looking out 1020 years. What's the workforce need, so to speak, for for Doosan Bobcat I'm going to talk specifically here in Bismarck Mandan. But and what and what do we need to do as a community to try to accomplish that?

00:31:19,930	S3:
Yeah, that's really good. And it's important for everyone to understand that. At bobcat, we, you know, we're rationalize our commitment to where we work. Uh, years ago and today, the need that we have. We need people. You know, our factories are constantly, constantly looking for employees to come in to do work on all three different shifts of the day, whether it's morning shift, afternoon shift or night shift. We need good employees that want to have a career. You know, we're a family at bobcat. I can attest to that, having been with this company my whole career. And we want you to raise your family here. So, for example, if you have a spouse that's working out in the in the oil field, for whatever reason that benefits your family, come work at bobcat, you know, and you got a kid that's in high school and they want to become a something that they're maybe unsure about. Talk to us. We'd love to have your kid as an intern, a co-op, and then we want to hire them full time. So I would encourage people to understand that at bobcat, we're in North Dakota brand. We love being here, and we want good employees that are interested in having a career. And whether that's working in a factory, working as an engineer in a professional environment, a lot of opportunities today that that really didn't exist 15 or 20 years ago.

00:32:29,559	S2:
And obviously you're looking to growth is a pattern that needs to be at sustainability. If we aren't growing, we're going the other direction. And so yeah, do you see any challenges that that in your role or as a company that are out there that might interest people for moving forward challenges?

00:32:48,720	S3:
I think the the opportunity is really for the type of workforce. And I'll talk specifically about engineering. In the past, that was always about the mechanical, the agricultural engineer that comes in and designing designs, the structure. There's a shift happening with what type of employees are needed. And there's a huge gap right now out there in that software engineering, that AI world, that technology development. Uh, we need those employees here. We struggle to attract that talent, partly because it's there isn't a lot of it out there. And those programs are just being developed by universities. You know, Ndsu, for example, it just started a brand new program like a year ago. Those are the types of employees that we're going to need to be able to advance these products and these technologies that I was talking about that we. You know, chatted with autonomy. They're designed differently. They're robots. Yeah. You know, and robots might be scary to a lot of people and because of how movies imply their presence, but they will be part of our world. And I think it's awesome to be able to experience the benefit that they have. And and we control them, we control their design, and we need kids to come in to work and help manage that future for us.

00:33:57,150	S2:
Oh wonderful man. Thank you for joining me. It's been a pleasure. Thank you for what all that happens in in Bismarck, Mandan as a result of Doosan Bobcat and frankly, in North Dakota, because I know we're focused here in Bismarck and Mandan, but, you know, there's winter and there's Fargo, and there's probably two ancillary suppliers around the state that are providing pieces of of your equipment to you. So thank you for being here, and thank you for being a part of our community.

00:34:21,670	S3:
Absolutely. Thank you for having me. Yeah, we appreciate it.

00:34:35,380	S1:
Thank you for watching Bismarck Insights with mayor Mike Schmitz. If you have specific topics or questions you'd like addressed in future episodes. Email Schmidt's at Bismarck and Gov.

00:34:48,980	S1:
For call the City of Bismarck at (700) 135-5130 zero. To learn more about the City of Bismarck, visit Bismarck, N.D. gov. Or follow us on a variety of social media channels by searching Bismarck and Gov. Bismarck Insights is a collaboration between Dakota media access and the City of Bismarck. You may find Bismarck Insights episodes on government access channels two and 602, as well as on Roku, Apple TV, and fire TV devices on radio access 102.5 FM and on demand at Free TV.