Without the generous farmland of other parts of American agriculture, the Arizona market demanded equipment dealers to be early pioneers in consolidation, diversification and centralized operations. The late Norm Bingham and son, Blaine, did all these things before they became common in the industry and added their own style of a respectful, by-design succession planning process that the elder Bingham ushered in while he was still in his 40s.

Norm, who died in 2019 at 93, exhibited the opportunistic genes that his sons and grandsons would also display. Raised on an Arizona dairy farm, the cowboy-turned-Navy man-turned collegiate football player started out in dairy management. Upon hearing of an equipment dealer in Casa Grande, Ariz., that went belly up, Norm and wife, Audrey, got their hands on a Ford Tractor dealership in 1955. Throughout the early years, he’d picked up a few other lines and expanded to 4 stores in his first two decades of business. Norm had a strong desire to travel quicker and soon got his pilot’s license and bought a small plane.

Answering the Call Home

Meanwhile, son, Blaine, accepted a West Point appointment from Sen. Barry Goldwater and headed to the U.S. Military Academy to study engineering. As he was finishing his second year, Blaine took a call from his father, who expressed he’d invested all he wanted to personally in the dealership and invited Blaine back. “He wanted someone to assume some control and responsibility, and he had some confidence I could grow into that,” Bingham says.

Name: Norm (1926-2019) & Blaine Bingham

Dealership: Bingham Equipment

City: Casa Grande, Ariz.

Primary Lines: Kubota, Bobcat, New Holland, Case Construction, AGCO, MacDon, Hyundai, Jacobsen Mowers, Smithco, Toro, Stihl, Great Plains, Land Pride, ROC, Darf Rakes, Diamond Mowers, Hardline, Orangeline Trailers and Degelman

Locations: 14 in Arizona and Southern California

At the crossroads that cadets face before accepting the long-term service commitment, Blaine decided the growth and earning power of private business was more in line with his career goals, and promised his dad he’d join him when done with his schooling. He returned home to enroll in the Univ. of Arizona (this time as a business major). As Norm couldn’t fly at the time, Blaine took his dad’s airplane to Tucson and got his pilot’s license while in college.

As he flew his father on business trips 2 days per week as a college senior, Blaine was building his industry and business know-how from the time in the cockpit and on the ground with Norm. 

“I got started in the business officially in 1976,” says Bingham, noting he’d gained early experience and success with new cotton equipment. “I opened our 5th store and that was my learning session right there.”

As business locations continued to grow, Blaine needed a larger plane. While making that purchase, Blaine met a young flight trainer with whom Blaine and his wife, Barbara, created a successful aircraft charter business that operates today as Southwest Aircraft Charter.

Home-Team Style

In personal visits to see the two Binghams, and in interviews with others, it is clear the they discovered a working succession plan that was as good as any — and before the word “succession” appeared in business-school vernacular.

Family has always been a strong component in the business. Through the years, Bingham Equipment has had leadership from many family members. This included Russell Bingham (Blaine’s brother) Blayne Spilsbury and sons Seth and Shaun (brother-in-law and nephews) along with Blaine’s sons, Brant, Chance and Briton.

Norm and Blaine were alike in many ways (whipsmart, servant leaders who listened first, maintained a calm presence, and could visualize great things for their business), but also had their own styles.

Independent Advisor's Observations on the Binghams’ Father-Son Dynamic

By Chuck Goodmiller, Managing Principal, Baker Tilly Arizona Region

I have been the Bingham's CPA for over 30 years. The Binghams are not only exceptional business owners but good people. 

Norm started the business in 1955 from nothing. He grew the business using a good old-fashioned approach of staying true to his word, operating on handshakes and doing what he said he’d do. He put his team first and developed a culture of loyal employees and customers. 

When I came on board, Norm was already transitioning Blaine to his current leadership role. It is rare to see such a successful generational transition. Blaine embraced Norm’s approach to business and relationships. Blaine came up working on all aspects of the business before taking over leadership. I recall watching Norm and Blaine working together on moving the organization into the future. They had a unique mutual respect. 

Blaine embraced Norm’s experience and knowledge, and Norm embraced Blaine’s fresh ideas and let him run with those without resisting change. I am still impressed with how they handled the approach to planning and evolving the business for the future. It took both of them working together on a mutually agreed vision and executing their goals. They worked extremely hard and sacrificed to achieve success. But they never once sacrificed their integrity. I have been with them more times than I can count where they would always emphasize that no matter what, they need to do the right thing and take no shortcuts or compromise their ethics. This has resulted in a thriving business that has maintained loyal employees and customers that are still in place from the day I met them. 

I’m proud to say I had a wonderful relationship with Norm and learned much from him as I developed my own career. Now I am just as honored to work with Blaine as he has taken what he learned from Norm and has made it his own with his own successful style of leadership and business acumen. I’m truly a better professional and person for knowing these great men who certainly deserve to be honored.

Blaine recalls his dad’s early aggressiveness in the business, that he was able to counterbalance with a conservative general manager, Marvin Mooney. “They both pushed but kept things under control,” Bingham says. When asked to describe his dad, whom he eulogized at his funeral in 2019, Bingham described the traits by those who knew Norm best. “First was his work ethic, then business sense. Then his honesty and integrity and, finally, how he respected and supported his team members. My father was an amazing person that way.”

When asked how he differed from his father, Bingham paused. “He was the king of delegation and did so quicker than I have. But I do ask my sons to sit in my chair and see how they like it, so I’m getting there.”

As for the “one thing” that defines his own approach, Bingham hopes others would cite open and honest communications. “When I meet with our team, I try and talk about what we can do to solve the issues. I don’t like to spend a lot of time on what we can’t do. I want to be positive and productive and say, ‘Let’s work together in solving these problems.’’’

Bingham adds he’s more accounting-oriented than his dad was, because of his engineers’ training. “We do play the numbers quite a bit more now than in his day.”

Data & Open-Book Management

The Binghams have practiced open-book management for 30 years. “One of the things I learned over time from the economic cycles was where our costs had to be and under control. We use open-book management so everyone understands what’s going on in the business. The more they know and the more they understand, the quicker we’re going to make the right decisions.”


“Blaine is very low-key and even-keel; he’s never going to let you know he’s the smartest guy in the room. He brings together groups of different perspectives and facilitates good decisions in difficult circumstances. He doesn’t alienate those who disagree with him…” – Lance Formwalt, NAEDA Counsel, Siegfried Bingham, Kansas City, Mo.


That centralization of financial reporting is a key to Bingham’s ability to manage a wide-ranging business, and he leveraged Spader consulting with VitalEdge’s Intellidealer to help prep the data he reviews daily. “The daily reports come out at 4 a.m. and I read them by 5 a.m. each day,” he says. “The reports have all the metrics to show what's going on out there — sales activity, the age of inventory stock, turns, etc. We share those financials and we hold conference calls every week with every department to go through them.”

The advantages seen in centralization carry into other areas that are best handled by enterprise specialists. Also centralized are the functions of store maintenance, computers/data management, marketing, risk management and finance. They also have enterprise-level corporate product sales managers for each of the brands and corporate general parts, service and rental managers. Each location, meanwhile, has individual store managers and managers for parts, service and rental.

New Lines & Diversification

In those early years, Bingham Equipment was a true ag dealer. But that would soon change. The Binghams were among the earliest to take on Japanese tractor OEM Kubota in 1975 — and soon began eyeing construction markets as well. “We were a Ford tractor dealer, and they didn’t have the construction skid steer we needed so I went out to look for something to maintain our footprint in that business for construction equipment.” 

That search led Blaine to Bobcat and in 1982, he and his dad purchased Bobcat dealerships in Phoenix and Tucson, which further diversified the business.

DMS-Dealer-Hall-of-Fame-Bingham.jpg

Years before their selection to the Dealer Hall of Fame, Blaine Bingham and Ray Koenig appeared together on a panel about succession planning during the 2013 Dealership Minds Summit. Answering attendees' questions following their presentation from l to r are Blaine and Brant Bingham, Bingham Equipment Co.; Eric and Brion Torgerson, Torgerson’s; and Raymond and Aaron Koenig, Koenig Equipment Co. Jeff lazewski

That diversification would serve the business well. Unlike other regions’ vast ag acreages, Bingham says less deedable ground exists in Arizona because of tribal land and forestry and other state-owned ground. Getting into construction and rural lifestyle equipment, he says, allowed growth and expansion of stores. 

Bingham Equipment is considered a trailblazer as an ag equipment dealer who moved into construction, yet Bingham points out that it was out of necessity, not genius. “In different areas of the country, like the Midwest, other dealers didn’t need to have that diversification at all. That was true even in California, where the ag business was much more stable than here.”

His “student of the industry” approach served him well in new segments, since he says market cycle understanding was more of an issue than differences in customer behaviors. “The key was understanding the growth prospects — the impact of housing starts and all the construction metrics. We needed to learn so when the ag market slowed, we knew what was possible in the other markets to make up that sales volume.”