John Byrom - The Guy Who Gets to Think Outside the Box

When it comes to logistics, details, and new technologies, John Byrom is your guy. With a calm demeanor that never seems flustered, John has learned to take things in stride, working through problems and looking for opportunities with an eye toward innovation and change to reach the objective. 

And that’s just what he’s doing at PESCO. 

His role as Business Development Manager for the last seven years has provided him the chance to gather his previous work experiences and channel them effectively into pushing PESCO to look beyond the status quo and towards bigger potential. 

Where He’s Been

Being a Farmington local, John inevitably sought the chance to return home when the time came. After graduating from Texas A&M, he began working for Union Carbide Corporation in Houston, Texas. Dealing with pipelines and petrochemical products, he gained invaluable leadership experience while learning about facets of the petrochemical industry, as well as how large corporations function with their focus on strategic planning and formal systems and processes for continuous improvement.  

But with home continuing to draw him back, he took a job in Farmington working for a small oil and gas company, D.J. Simmons, where he worked for 20 years. John was given the opportunity to see the world of business behind the scenes and up close, helping to lead an entire business from long-range planning to the daily challenges of operations, personnel management, and cash flow. While some may question his decision to step off the major company corporate ladder, John certainly did not. He knew what a blessing it was to be back in Farmington and was enthused to put what he had learned into practice and to continue learning. It is that continuous desire to keep learning that is a trademark of John’s character. Not afraid to push past boundaries, he calmly and resiliently continues to look toward the future and find ways to progress. 

Where He Is Now 

With the economic downturn of 2015, John made his move over to PESCO. Having known PESCO President and CEO Kyle Rhodes for many years in various areas of the community, he knew it would be a good fit from the start. 

And it was. 

So what was John’s new role at PESCO? Stemming back to his knack for systemization and unyielding curiosity for learning, John is responsible for business development, including finding new applications, technologies, and products where PESCO can use its strengths. He’s looking at how to maximize efficiencies in oil and gas, as well as find areas beyond oil and gas where PESCO can branch out into new horizons. 

He guides in strategic planning, helping PESCO reach long-term goals by looking for more effective methods and implementing the steps to reach those goals. He loves working with the PESCO leadership team to help set up new methods and practices so that PESCO can run the smoothest and most efficiently. 

Essentially, John is given the privilege to think outside the box. 

And it’s working. 

With the encouragement of Kyle and the rest of the leadership team, not only is John pushing boundaries by thinking outside the box, but this mindset has seeped into the company culture - for the better. With an established company like PESCO that’s been in business for over 53 years, it can be easy to gravitate towards keeping things the same. Change can seem scary with the looming fear of failure and branching out into new arenas can feel difficult because oil and gas is what PESCO has done so well for decades. 

But if you aren’t innovating and growing, you run the risk of stagnation and decay. John is always pushing toward the next, new thing to make PESCO a better company for its owners, customers, and employees. 

PESCO’s culture continues to shift away from accepting the routine as is. With involvement from leaders like John, teams approach their problems differently, taking time to understand the process, what is broken, and how to not just fix the problem, but improve the system so those problems don’t happen again. Without the fear of failure, new strategies can be tried, learned from, adapted and implemented. Perfection may not always be attainable, but continuous improvement is. John has helped steer the culture toward working through problems creatively and seeing the great potential that can follow. 

Where He’s Going - The Flywheel 

In Jim Collins's book, Good to Great, he references an example called the Flywheel analogy - something John emphasizes in his work at PESCO. In essence, momentum occurs with innumerable small pushes in the same direction repeatedly. It’s challenging at first, of course. But with each continuous effort pushing in the same direction, the work progressively gets easier, the momentum builds, and your hard work has paid off. You’re now spinning your flywheel with ease, confidence, and experience. 

And John feels that PESCO’s flywheel is really starting to roll. 

Where some companies rely on quick-fix schemes to build momentum, they eventually limit their progress. Changing from one tactic to another, they are constantly changing directions and going nowhere, never gaining any momentum. 

But that’s not PESCO. 

All the hard work and dedication that PESCO employees have put in over the last half a century is truly paying off. PESCO is a strong company, surviving economic downturns, staying ahead of competitors, and working diligently to produce the best equipment, all while investing in employees and the community. This sets up PESCO to not only maintain its leadership in oil and gas, but will give it an advantage as it expands into new industries as well. 

The flywheel is spinning fast now - and John is thrilled to be a part of it. He’s motivated to continue pushing the boundaries, to keep pushing PESCO further, and is proud to be a part of a company that has built such a bright future for itself. The diligent work in the past, and now, is gaining fabulous traction for PESCO - and John can’t wait to see where it leads.