As part of its ongoing efforts to highlight association members and their leaders, AEM recently connected with Robert Niemiec, Managing Partner of AEM service member company Twisthink, to discuss a wide range of topics.
Twisthink is a professional services firm that partners with forward-thinking companies to drive accelerated growth through product innovation. As companies move along the digital transformation continuum, Twisthink can help at the front end of creating an organization’s digital strategy all the way to the full design and development of connected products and digital platforms.
As the Grand Rapids, Michigan-based company fast approaches two-and-a-half decades in business, Niemiec sat down to discuss the challenges and opportunities facing his organization, how Twisthink supports its clients, how it gets the most out of its AEM membership and more.
AEM: There is no shortage of opportunities and challenges that are presenting themselves for businesses today. From your standpoint, what do you feel are the most notable opportunities facing Twisthink right now? What about challenges?
Niemiec: Having launched Twisthink way back in 2001, it’s been amazing to watch our team of five people grow into an organization that today employs nearly 60 people. And to me, the key has been our ability to hire amazing talent that allows our organization to create impact in a meaningful way.
Twisthink is best described as the combination of a professional service strategy firm and a hardcore technology firm. We apply a left-brained engineering approach to our work and “twist” it together with a right-brained, creative, visual and very dynamic set of strategy and design skills. It was how we deliver for our clients and help them innovate, accelerate and grow.
When thinking about opportunities, the first one that comes to mind is the potential of digital technology, particularly artificial intelligence (AI). Our focus centers on bringing those left-brained and right-brained skillsets together to drive innovation, specifically in the ever-evolving digital landscape. And our goal is to help alleviate some of the fears and concerns around AI so people can create value with it.
The bottom line is simple… You can do great things with AI. But if you’re not careful, you can do great harm, too. The term “digital” encompasses AI, as AI is a significant part of the digital domain. Telematics and edge devices, which capture data and create new experiences, also fall under the digital domain. Additionally, cloud computing is deeply embedded in all of our lives. The real magic happens when all these elements are twisted together to create meaningful new user experiences. There's a growing demand to create new value with data, and our role at Twisthink is to help organizations navigate those waters effectively.
When it comes to challenges, talent acquisition and retention are certainly ones we hear about regularly from our clients. For a business like ours, dedicated to helping companies create new value through innovation, recessionary fears have played a role in slowing some organizations down.
Some hesitancy exists, and that’s a challenge. However, in the industrial space, where we are heavily engagement and serve a range of vertical, I’ve noticed a positive dynamic at play. During my visits to events like The Utility Expo and CONEXPO-CON/AGG, I found that many AEM members who are pretty bullish about the future, are seeing growth, and are still plowing ahead toward their goals. That bodes well for us as a company as we continue to work with equipment manufacturers to impact the industry in a meaningful way.
AEM: What efforts to support your customers are Twisthink most proud of?
Niemiec: Organizationally, our goal is to be a great teammate for our clients. We work very diligently to establish relationships that last over the long term.
However, we can only grow our brand and create an impact on behalf of our clients, if we achieve commercial success. We don’t just dream about what the future might look like. That’s not our persona as a firm. Instead, we actively engage with our clients, helping paint a clear strategy for the future. Then we also have the team and infrastructure in place to take our clients’ vision and convert it into a new product or innovative service.
We don’t want to be just a think tank. We want to be a value creator, and a partner that helps our clients’ ebitdas grow over time. And I enjoy being transparent about that fact, especially after 22 years of explaining it to company leaders.
A couple projects that we’re proud of include the collaboration with fellow AEM members, Flexco and Vermeer. In our partnership with Flexco, we started the project by traveling to mining sites worldwide to understand the real-world challenges that their customers faced. By taking this user-centered approach, we were able to develop an IoT product that monitors conveyor belt health, reducing downtime and extending the lifespan of conveyors through predictive maintenance.
Our work with Vermeer followed a similar path. By conducting in-depth interviews with 50 individuals in the field, we gained valuable insights into their pain points. We used this as the foundation to develop a custom telematics platform that delivers valuable information to Vermeer dealers and customers through a mobile and web app.
We can't overstate how much we appreciate our relationships with Flexco and Vermeer. They're driven by innovation and always looking to push the envelope - the kind of companies we love to work with.
AEM: As an engaged AEM member, what advice would you give to fellow association members about how to get the most out of their investment in AEM?
Niemiec: AEM events, whether they’re held online or in person, have been so helpful and useful for us as an organization. Our business is all about building relationships with partners and clients. And personally, I find AEM’s in-person events to be absolutely energizing.
I went to AEM’s Annual Conference last year in Napa, California, and when I came back to the office, I felt like AEM was an organization we had to find ways to run harder and faster with right away. I found myself blown away by the people and the energy, and I can’t wait to return to Annual again this year.
Even though it takes time in the fast-paced world we live in today, I believe networking is so worth it. Despite having the ability to use technology to connect with others faster and more efficiently than ever before, it just isn’t as natural as in-person networking. So, going to an event, meeting with good people, sharing new ideas, fostering growth, and even having a little bit of fun, is just so great!
Ultimately, working with AEM so that we’re better informed to serve our clients is a no-brainer. We value our client relationships with AEM members like Vermeer and Etnyre. And we want to be able to serve more organizations in the equipment manufacturing industry. The best way to do that is to align ourselves with AEM so we can bring the necessary knowledge and informed perspective to our clients. Because we tend to initially view things in a different light as our partners in the industry, having that relationship with AEM allows us to accomplish our primary goal – creating impact for our clients.
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