Epic Ventures
 

Mar 20, 2006

CEO Expects Bumper Crop


The day Richard Reynertson retires is the day he buys the farm.  Until then, he's selling it software.

    "You know what retirement is? It's early death," joked Reynertson, the energetic CEO of Feed Management Systems, Inc. (FMS) a $5.6 million Brooklyn Center software company focused on the commercial-feed industry.  "Retirement has got to be more than water exercises and shuffle board.  Every day is a gift.  What are you going to do with tomorrow's gift- water polo?"
    What seems like workaholic rhetoric is definitely not.  Reynertson views his company as a virtuous organization helping the world.  The son of an evangelical minister, he believes in spreading good works, and sees FMS in that light.
    "The world's population isn't getting smaller," he said. "(FMS) can have a massive impact on the planet.  We're helping provide high quality, low-cost food, made in the most efficient, safe, and nutritious way possible."
    The company has clients in 50 countries, and is seeking partnerships with companies in Brazil, China and India, all fast-growing markets with hefty agricultural industries.
    FMS, a Microsoft partner, offers three types of software: animal-nutrition software, for example, can be used to engineer feeding plans that allow farmers to manipulate the rate at which their livestock grows.

    About 70 percent of the world's commercial feed comes to market via some form of FMS software, Reynertson said. 
    "People are put on the planet to make a difference," he added.  "the world would be worse off if we went out of business."
    The world came close in March 2001, when FMS- then East Systems, Inc.- filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.  Reynertson took over the company that month, and has since grown it 20 percent year-over-year. FMS exited Chapter 11 in February 2002. 
    How did Reynertson do it all?
    "Focus, focus, focus," he said.  "There's no magic formula, just focus.  The company was in a hole and had to stop digging.  If you're in a hole, just climb like crazy and don't look back until you're out."  
    FMS isn't the first company Reynertson has rescued. In 1994, he became CEO and partner of EXI Corp., a St. Paul-based software engineering company that in 13 years had never topped more than $1 million in annual revenue.  By 1997, he grew it to $7 million.
    Impressive accomplishments, sure.  More impressive is that Reynertson still has a life.  He's an assistant coach for his son's hockey team, plays 40 rounds of golf a year and attends church and his kids' school events.
    "And I have time to watch TV," he said. "You just have to know when to quit.  For me, Monday is like game time. Friday is the fourth quarter, when I look at the scoreboard.  If you haven't won by 2 o'clock Friday, then don't give up until the whistle blows, because you don't get to play again until Monday." 
    Although Reynertson admits he's acquired more financial wealth than most, he believes living a good life is what really matters.
    He gets that from his dad, Rich Sr., a 67-year-old minister at Bethel Evangelical Free Church in Fairmont, whose brush with death in 1979 helped shape Reynertson's live-for-today outlook on life.
    Back then, the Reynertsons lived in Laurens, Iowa, where Rich Sr. owned a variety store.  Rich Sr. had just spent thousands remodeling the stores, when Mayo Clinic doctors said he'd die within a year from Crohn's disease, the gastrointestinal disorder from which he'd suffereed nearly all his life.  
    The Reynertsons prayed for direction, concluding that they should sell the store and that Rich Sr. should spend his remaining days as a minister, although he had no formal pastoral training. That was a Friday.
    On Sunday, a neighbor said that Maple Ridge Free Church in Stanchfield, Minn., needed a pastor, and was willing to train.
    On Monday, Rich Sr. said, "A banker called and said, 'Rich, I know you're probably not interested in selling, but I have somebody who might want to buy your store.'"
    Rich Sr. sold the store 10 days later, and was soon offered the pastor job. More important, he's still alive 27 years later.
    "My father gets up every day, plans like he's going to live forever, then lives the day like it's his last," Reynertson said. "My mother goes to bed at night thanking God for one more day with my father.
    "Life is not about the bucks."