16 April 2012

I have been working full-time at Dielectric for one year and three months now.  I wish I had started this blog when I first started working. Since I didn't I'm going to have to see how far back my memory goes and get you all up to speed on my first full year and how it went.

My first day on the job was January 18, 2011.  My dad told me to be there at 7:30 a.m. and to go right into his office.  When I woke up that morning I was very excited and very nervous, I felt a wide range of emotions.  Even though I knew pretty much everyone who works here (because of working summers and my dad bringing me in as a little kid) I still felt like it was my first day at a new school.  I remember as when I got there and was sitting in my dad's office and was humming.  My dad told me "You're just like your grandmother, you hum when you get nervous." Zing!  He called me out.  I was nervous.  We had our initial intro meeting, which went very well.  This is when he told me "You are the S.O.B., the son of the boss."

For the next 7-8 months I worked in our cost estimating department.  Here I quoted different jobs and sent the quotes to either current or potential customers.  I learned about the different raw materials we used, how much they cost, how long it took to machine one part, and all the other capabilities the Dielectric had to offer that I really didn't know about.  I enjoyed this job, but I never really felt pushed and that it really wasn't difficult for me.  One day our COO, Perry, asked me to lunch and proposed a new task/job for me.  We went to Cousins Subs and here he told me he was unsure what was the best way to mentor me through out my career and get me ready for when I am handed over the reigns of Dielectric.  He came up with an idea of creating a prototype and low-volume production cell within Dielectric that I would operate.  We called it JR Prototypes.

22 March 2012

Good Afternoon Everyone,

This is the first time I am blogging.  My girlfriend started blogging a while ago and I was intrigued.  I never thought that I would have started one, but until I started hearing more and more about it I thought it would be a great idea to start; especially of the "situation" that I was born into.

Before I start to explain my "situation" I would first like to introduce myself.  My name is Michael Raymond Esser Jr. and I am 24 years old.  I have two wonderful parents that want the best for me, one big sister who I look up too and have the utmost respect for, and one very interesting younger brother, who surprises me in all sorts of ways (he is an engineer).  I am extremely lucky to have the most amazing girlfriend in world, Kerstin.  She is currently in human resources at Pieper Electric and is starting to think about going back to school and getting her Masters in Psychology and maybe her PhD. I'm a very big family man with enduring morals and values, I am a Christian Catholic and a strong conservative.  I love to golf, run in triathlons and marathons, I take great interest in investing and business principles and I also love to boat and be on a lake.  I strive to be the best person I can be with a mission of having the opportunity to share my fortunes with others.

This is me with Kerstin.

I named this blog "The Effects of Being the S.O.B." because that is what I am the son of the boss.  See my grandpa, Papa Ray, started a company out of his basement called Dielectric Corporation in 1966 and it has grown larger since then.  Dielectric is a value-added engineering manufacturer of plastic parts.  My dad, Mike Sr., has taken Dielectric over as CEO and Chairman since my grandpa's passing in 2008.  My dad's goal from here on out until he retires is to take Dielectric from a $25 million dollar company to a $75 million dollar company through organic growth and strategic acquisitions and then hand it off to the third generation.

This is were I come in.  After college I started working at Dielectric full-time a little over a year ago, January 18, 20011.  Before then I worked many summers as a warehouse assistant, CNC operator and office intern doing many things and learning about the company.  If you know me personally than you know that I tend to put a lot of pressure on myself and being the S.O.B. I put even more pressure on myself.  That is why I am writing this blog, and I'm hoping that it might someday turn into a book.  I want to tell the situations and feelings I have as being the son of the boss and explain how I handled them all.


I hope somewhere down the road all generations of Dielectric and even other family businesses have the opportunity to read this and learn from it.