Navigating Change: An Interview with Jim Bransfield

In this episode, we sit down with Jim Bransfield of Infiltrator Water Technologies to discuss the acquisition of Orenco Systems and how it’s driving collaboration, innovation, and shared purpose across the wastewater industry. The conversation highlights a renewed focus on R&D, meeting stricter regulations, and delivering scalable, cost-effective solutions, especially for decentralized systems. Together, the companies aim to become a one-stop provider for clean water technologies and industry growth. 

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Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction
• 1:05 Benefits to the Industry
• 4:34 Changes and Challenges
• 12:40 Looking Toward the Future
• 17:33 Conclusion

Transcript

Angela: Hello and welcome to Make It Clear, a conversational podcast about all things related to water and wastewater. I'm your host, Angela Bounds, and I'm joined by my co-host, Shawn Rapp. In each episode, we'll tackle a relevant topic with facts and expert opinions and make things clear. 

Hello and thanks for joining us again. Today, Shawn and I are going to sit down and talk to Jim Bransfield.

Jim is the vice president of marketing and product management for Infiltrator Water Technologies. And as you know, we were acquired by Infiltrator last October. And so Jim's here. We're going to talk about the organizations coming together, kind of what's happened around that, and what we see moving forward in the future. So hi, Jim.

Jim: Hey! Thanks for having me. Glad to be here.

Angela: Absolutely. So let's just jump in. 

Shawn: Sounds great. 

Angela: All right. So what benefits did you personally see from the combination of IWT and Orenco and what we can bring to the wastewater industry?

Jim: Okay, great question. So in my view, when I looked at it from the outside perspective, we took two diverse groups of really smart people with two different technologies, really technology portfolios, some overlapping, a lot not overlapping. And we brought those ideas together and figuring out how the job for all of us, let's figure out how we can work collaboratively to both grow with those technologies.

So, I've just seen a lot of really good idea sharing, a lot of good collaboration and I think the benefit to the industry is really gonna be that, you know, from those diverse ideas and our diverse portfolio of products, the hope would be we can all get better and, you we can help each other grow.

Angela: The goal is to elevate the entire industry.

Jim: I mean we have differing views on, you know, how technologies work.

Angela: Just to be clear, it doesn't change just because you're acquired. It doesn't mean that your view or your opinion changes. It just means that you talk about it.

Jim: Yeah, and it can lead to some uncomfortable discussions at times, but on a whole, everybody has the same attitude for growth and the same attitude for change.

Angela: And you can only grow through those uncomfortable conversations, right? If you're in an echo chamber and you're only talking to people who agree with you. I think we've seen in a lot of places that that is not positive for change. And so we're having those difficult conversations at a lot of different levels and attempting to grow through it. By us growing as a complete organization, the industry will thereby grow and evolve.

Jim: Yeah. 

Shawn: I think we both want the same thing. We're both really dedicated to changing the way the world cleans their water.

Angela: Yeah.

Shawn: And having clean water for communities and for individuals. So I think that helps too to have that basis that we're aligned in that goal.

Jim: Yeah 

Angela: I think across all three organizations, so IWT, ADS, and Orenco, like we all share that passion.

Jim: That's true. You know, and think the other thing that's good that, you we all know in the industry is going on is there's, there's increased pressure around a nutrient reduction and how can we, how can we all get better at treating wastewater and be more efficient about it? And it isn't one solution isn't always the best solution. So I think, you know, our ability to look at combining technologies and combining solutions that we have really is the future. I mean, I think that, you know, working together to improve our products, and maybe combine and collaborate in different ways. That's really going to help us all get to these higher stringent, higher and more stringent nutrient reductions that are coming down the pike. And then we'll allow the regulatory community to set these regulations in place that can put more stringent limits on that we all know is important. that's what I'm excited about. I'm excited about our ability to do that and to be more effective at solving problems.

Angela: Meet the challenges that are out there. Because they're out there. So what changes are you seeing within the two companies?

Jim: Well, you know… 

Angela: it's change. 

Jim: It's change. It's change. You know, everybody always says change is good but doesn't mean change is comfortable. So change is good, but change isn't always comfortable. And we, and we get that. You know, the, I think fortunately for Infiltrator, we've, we've been through a number of owners in our history. And I've been with the company for 30 years and so I've lived through a lot of transition and we've been acquired ourselves, we've acquired other folks at different times. And so having that awareness and that understanding that this is change, it's disruptive is important and being able to manage that is important for all of us. The stuff that I'm seeing that excites me is I'm seeing this collaboration around R&D that our two groups got together and, you know, they're hopefully, you know, in an organization, your R&D group are the people who are excited and, you know, tinkering and toiling with ideas and they're our idea guys. And when you put two of those together, you know, it's sharing ideas. So I'm seeing this renewed excitement around R &D on both sides.

Angela: I actually would agree with that. I think that R&D and the R&D department is one of the departments that's the most excited and the most on both sides. Not to say that other people aren't engaged, but they are. It's a different level of excitement and engagement right now. And that's what you want in R&D, right? 

Jim: Right. 

Angela: Because then those people are the idea guys.

Shawn: Yeah, its almost like you’ve opened up a whole new horizon of possibilities.

Angela: Yeah! They get excited and all of a sudden ideas start pinging off walls.

Jim: So you hear them talking and collaborating and it gets everybody else excited like, there is new stuff coming down the pike and we can now talk about ever increasing stringent limits around nitrogen and, okay, let's ratchet it up even higher. And that's what's really exciting. So I think that's exciting. I think that change has been good. think another thing that we all have industry relationships and we all have, you know, our aligned alignment with our customers and our good customers. Well, being able to share those relationships has been a change too. So it's opened up doors for both sides to meet people who can help our businesses grow individually for, you know, for Orenco or for Infiltrator and then collectively as a group. And that broadens, that opens up even further beyond Infiltrator Orenco. It opens up to Advanced Drainage systems as well, our ownership group.

So, that's been a good change. And I think that, you know, the attitude for growth that, you know, that we have, I think it's been exciting for everybody to say, you know, hey, we're both growing individually on our own platforms. Well, in a combined effort, we can grow even more. so, the excitement around growth, I think, is renewed and different, you know, that I view as a change.

Angela: It's interesting that you say that I was actually having a discussion about the growth last night. And I was talking to someone about how growing a company to where we grew Orenco is not something people do every day independently as family-owned businesses. And it's a very, very difficult thing. But part of what you have to know is when it's time to tap out. if you believe in your business, right? If you believe in what the business can be, you have to know when it may be beyond what you can do. And if you want your business to achieve what you believe it can achieve, you have to tag someone in that can grow it to that point. And I know that we had some of those difficult conversations, right? Where it's like, okay, we got this here, but like, what it's going to take to get it to the next level is something that we need to bring people in for.

Jim: It's not only financial resources, but it's human capital and it's resources and yeah.

Angela: Dad was seventy five, Hal was retired, Jeff and Eric are in their sixties it's, it's one of those things that it's like okay like we believe in this…

Jim: I’m sure they appreciate you calling out their ages right now.

Angela: You’re welcome. they know. If you think that as the young one, I don't regularly call them old… 

Jim: That was nice from the little sister to call it out for being old.

Angela: Make sure that we know Jeff is 60 years old this year. I remind him, and his gray hair all the time. 

Shawn: I’ll have to send him a card.

Angela: But that's one of the reasons why we did this, right? Because we believe in the business. We believe in your business and we believed in order to take things to the next level that IWT and ADS were the right people to do it.

Jim: Yeah, and it all fuels to our mission of a better environment for the water. That's what for all of us, all of us have that clear vision. And so it really is a, that's a powerful synergy between all three companies. It's just having that common vision.

Angela: I don't think that we can emphasize that enough to be honest. We are all driven. I mean, we're all driven to run successful businesses, but we are also driven by something larger, right? That desire to make a positive impact on the planet, to make sure that people have clean water.

Shawn: I mean that's not a new thing. mean we've talked about it all the time.

Angela: No, we talk about it all the time.

Shawn: Well, it's…it's just part of who we are. It's in our DNA.

Jim: Yeah. And it's important, I mean, as you talk about change, there's been a lot of change and it's taken hard work. I like we're all working really hard to make this a success. so it's not, I don't want to, you know, I'm it's sunshine and roses. It's not, it is, it's hard work, but it's working. You know, we're-

Angela: And there are changes like…

Jim: We're getting really positive results working together. And so I think that even helps the workload. People are looking at it going, hey, know, I couldn't do this before. All of a sudden, now I can do it because I have more resources, because I have more people around me. So that's exciting. It's having a positive effect for both organizations. so the work is putting in the work is benefiting all.

Angela: Yeah, I think it makes me think of all the safety stuff that we're doing now. Like we always prided ourselves on safety and always said that our number one priority was safety. And then when we sold to a publicly held company, they take safety much more seriously than we ever did. And we thought we took it very seriously. And yesterday I even found myself saying, do you know what I used to do without without safety glasses on? 

Jim: Yeah. 

Angela: Having worked here since I was 14, which was, I understand like 15 years ago, but…

Jim: I loved that shift yesterday. We did an event, small event out on the plant floor and I walked in with my safety vest on and my glasses in my pocket and I got scolded for not having my glasses on by somebody I'd never met before who worked on the floor. That was fantastic. 

Angela: That's how it should be.

Jim: That's the kind of attitude you want.

Angela: That's the kind of change, right? For someone like me who's been doing this for a long time, I can be like, what? I don't want to do that. But it is for the betterment of the whole organization. Even if I don't like it. It doesn't matter. All right. So what do you see in the future in your crystal ball, your magic eight ball? What does your magic eight ball say that we have to look forward to?

Jim: All right. It's my hope that we can come to a place where we're providing a cohesive family of products that are helping the industry, you know, grow and do the things it wants to do. Cause I feel like our industry, everybody knows what they want to get to, but we don't all have the tools we need to get there. And so if, as we grow and evolve and we're able to, you know, combine our efforts and combine our, our offerings, then I hope the market says, all right, now I've got it. I've got what I need. I don't need to, you know, try and cobble something together because I think that the reality is that, you know, the ability to treat wastewater is, it can be done. Everybody knows what needs to happen. It's the question of whether you can do it with a, in the small flows of a decentralized system and whether you can do it cost effectively. 

Angela: Yeah, within budget.

Jim, So, you know, that's to treat a million gallons day. They can treat it to reuse standards very easily, but it's lot harder to do that cost effectively for a single-family home. So my hope is our combined resources will help us do that. And so then we, as an industry and decentralized side of industry, that we can then go and attack the larger, you know, decentralized or centralized market opportunity. So there's now solutions in the, you know, that treat to the levels of centralized in a decentralized fashion, cost effectively, then it's not a question of that you have to sewer. You don't have to sewer. You have the tools and you can do it. You know, small communities all of sudden have what they need to stay...

Angela: Or additions. These phased communities are just adding on. You don't have to add to a central sewer.

Jim: So that's my hope. And I think some of the tools that we've got, you know, at our disposal, you know, now as a combined entity, Liquid Only Sewer is probably the platform that we were, you know, one of the things we're most excited about. Like we saw the opportunity. We have a lot of technologies that can help in small communities, but collections is really one of the more most expensive parts of building a centralized plan.

All of sudden you can do that cost effective and you can do it in small scale in a phased approach, one house at one house at a time. It's great. that's the type of thing that, 

Angela: It’s great for everybody.

Jim: yeah, that's the type of stuff that I'm excited about. I think that, I think that if we're able to communicate this cohesive approach of a broad product family, that we're going to be able to really help the industry continue to go where it wants to go.

Angela: It's interesting to me when you put it like that, offering the broad spectrum so that people do have that one place that they can go, because that's why Orenco is here. Right? So I've told the story before, like when they were building, when my dad was working on Glide, he was super frustrated that he had to go here for this and here for that. And he had to put this together to get a hose and valve assembly. And he had to find this pump and he had to do all of this stuff just to build a sewer system. And he was like, you should be able to get all of this in one place. they were, know, as he and Hal and others were talking about it, like, we should be able to find this in one place. It shouldn't be so hard. And it's like, we're taking that to the next level now. Not only are we just talking about what we've designed, but now it's like, okay, we're going to bring these three things together. Right. And really, really go from end to end. 

Shawn: We have even more solutions.

Angela: We have more solutions, they're broader based, and we make it easy for people to use them all together.

Jim: Right. that would be my hope is that, you know, three years, five years from now, everybody looks at the combined entity and says, yeah, that's my go-to solution. They've got what I need.

Angela: They’ve got everything. 

Jim: Yeah. 

Angela: It's the only place you need.

Jim: And hopefully we continue with the collaboration of people that we continue generating good ideas. We continue listening to the customer and giving the customers what they want and need. So I think that's… end of day, we're here for the customers. We've gotta figure that into our equation.

Angela: Yeah, we have to give them what they need. We have to meet with them where they're at.

Jim: Yeah.

Angela: All right, perfect ending point. Is there anything else that you want to add?

Jim:  No, no, this has been really enjoyable. Thank you guys for having me.

Angela: We're glad that you were able to do this. For those of you that don't know, we're actually in studio today. I know that a lot of times we're doing this remotely, but Jim was here on site. The guys are all out for some meetings we had this week. So we're like, let's all just sit down together. All right. Well, thank you Jim for being here. And thank you all for listening. We want to thank you again for joining us today.

Angela: Before you go, don't forget to subscribe where you listen to podcasts so you're notified when new episodes are posted. Also, you can leave your comments or suggestions through the contact link on our website, www.orenco.com. Until next time, have a great day.