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.
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.”
Norm & Blaine Bingham Photo Gallery
Opportunities Seized
Not only did the Binghams steadily increase their store rooftops, but they also made a point to make sound real estate decisions. “We’ve acquired a lot of real estate over the years, and we’ve tried to pick the right real estate so we could get the visibility needed to provide customers with good service. Those investments have turned out to be pretty good as well and offered additional versatility in the business.”
Sound business was the Binghams’ pursuit, with aims of reaching stable ground, equity and lending flexibility — namely having several bank partners. “Multiple bank relationships have been very advantageous over the years. Even banks sometimes pick a market that they like but suddenly no longer do when something crashes. You want to be ready should that happen, to have the flexibility to continue to grow at a reasonable capital cost.”
Arizona is Different
Bingham has witnessed great change since returning to the family business. The primary crop of the 1970s, cotton, was replaced due to its water requirements, inserting new changes in equipment demand. Much of that land today, he says, is in alfalfa and vegetable production.
“A lot of acreage also appreciated in value and sold for residential or commercial building development, so a lot of farm ground was lost. From the mid-1970s to now, there has been a lot of commercial development in Arizona on ag land.”
Thus, Arizona dealers react differently to economic swings than corn-belt dealers. Bingham says since 1960, you could set your watch to a downturn every 10 years, although artificially low interest rates modified that schedule.
Blaine Bingham on Bingham Equipment’s Strategies for a Competitive Advantage
- Adopt a Culture of Innovation and Change. “We want change to be our friend and advantage. We try to embrace and encourage positive change, not just making change for the sake of it. The best companies test themselves to continue innovating and to be the most efficient in the business.”
- Be Customer Focused. “Our hearts must be in the right place. We need customers to have the best possible experience, so they’ll come back. If we manage our customers’ equipment, they’ll come along. But we must never forget what’s important to the customer.”
- Leverage Our Knowledge & Talent Through Communication & Trust. “The more we collaborate, the more we will find talent and knowledge. Unless we communicate and talk to one another, we can’t take advantage of that knowledge. And the only way people will talk to one another is if there’s trust.”
- Allocating Capital to Invest in the Right Areas. In this business, you must know where to allocate the capital for the best ROI. We need to drive to success by investing in the right areas for growth which can often change.
But despite unsettling times, Bingham says there never was a “will we make it?” moment. “We were very protective of what we were doing and making sure we had things under control. Again, owning your properties, being diversified and following good habits helped us hang in there with the changes that came along.”
Bingham is a student of the markets, economic trends and his track record of timing big decisions. “You can’t always pick the right timing, but those decisions made during the bottom of the cycle can quickly appreciate and add value to that decision. The more we can learn about the economics and the trends and the opportunities, the better we can play the game well.”
At the End...
Bingham was asked what he was most proud of, what he and his late dad accomplished. “First is being able to support the manufacturers that we represent — that was a primary goal as a business. Then being able to perform with a reasonable return on our investment. Having a good team that enjoys what it’s doing is extremely important and so is the profit sharing, a 401k and a good insurance plan — that’s something that’s been top of mind for many years. And recognizing employees who've stuck around.
“We wanted to improve and grow to become more stable as a business, and more productive and efficient. Our vision is to ‘be the brand of confidence.’”
For More on Bingham Equipment from the Farm Equipment Archives ...
Bingham points back to the mission and strategies, which are no different than when Farm Equipment first reported on the business 15 years ago, when Norm was still in the office.
“Our mission is to be the most productive and efficient equipment dealer on the planet,” he says. “There are four ways we do that. One is to adopt a culture of innovation and change. Two is to be customer focused. Three is to leverage our knowledge and talent through communication and trust. And four to allocate our capital to drive success.”
When it comes time for his sons to eulogize him as he did for Norm in 2019, Bingham says he hopes they’ll say their dad possessed the same traits as their grandfather. “That is, treating our employees with respect. Having a true, ethical business in which everybody wakes up everyday intent on doing the right thing. To see a business that grows by always behaving itself and corrects any mistakes. And for others here to know I was committed to the business and their success, and the success of our customers.”
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What Others Say about Norm & Blaine Bingham
Bobcat’s John Swanberg on Norm Bingham
John Swanberg, who retired in 2021, spent 26 years with Bobcat. He spent 15 years working with the Binghams as district manager from 1998-2013.
“Some owners run over everyone like a train,” says John Swanberg when asked to describe Norm. “But not Norm. He listened well, formed his own opinions and then told you what he wanted. He’d take input from everyone. Whenever we had a meeting, Norm would always be in there with us. He’d listen to logic but defer to Blaine. There was great respect between the two of them.
“He removed emotion and could make business decisions that were consistent with family values. They’re both good businesspeople who aren’t reactionary. They didn’t make decisions on a whim. If something didn’t make sense, they’d hold their cards until they could do better.
“Norm came across as a sweet old man – he wasn’t at all imposing, but we knew he’d been a lineman at the Univ. of Arizona – but no one was going to bully or run over him. I recall how another OEM once gave him an ‘all or nothing’ ultimatum. Norm’s only words were ‘that is an interesting way to run a business’ and said nothing else. But the next week, he’d told them to pick up all of their equipment from his the lot.
“He was a glass-half-full, upbeat and positive guy who squeezed so many things into his day. When you read his obituary you’re amazed how anyone could be that accomplished.”
Swanberg added that Blaine was the humblest of any highly successful businessman he’d ever seen.
From Kubota Regional Manager Brad Preston
“Blaine Bingham is a highly respected gentleman in the tractor and equipment business who has been a cornerstone of the industry since the 1970s. With over 5 decades of unwavering commitment, Blaine has built a reputation for excellence, integrity and unparalleled expertise in representing the Kubota brand. His passion for customer satisfaction set the foundation for his success. Over the years, he’s played a pivotal role in promoting the Kubota brand, ensuring it is synonymous with reliability, innovation and top-tier service. Blaine's approach to business is deeply rooted in his values of hard work, honesty and community. He has been instrumental in helping countless farmers, contractors and property owners find the right equipment solutions tailored to their specific needs. His ability to listen to his clients has earned him a loyal customer base and the respect of his peers.
“Beyond his professional accomplishments, Blaine is an active contributor to his community, supporting local events, agricultural initiatives, and organizations that promote growth and development. His dedication to fostering strong relationships with his customers and partners has left a legacy. Through decades of change and advancement in the tractor and equipment field, Blaine remained steadfast in his mission to deliver the highest standards of service and represent the Kubota brand with pride. His career is a testament to the power of dedication and a reminder of the impact one individual can have on an industry.
“I have had the pleasure of knowing Blaine for over 35 years. In that time, he was a valued client, mentor and friend. I look forward to continuing to work with a fellow Casa Grande Arizona graduate who went out in the world, made his mark and continues to help grow both himself and those around him.
– Brad Preston, Regional Sales Manager, Kubota Tractor Corp., Elk Grove, Calif.
From NAEDA Legal Counsel Lance Formwalt
Lance Formwalt first got to know Blaine Bingham in 2010 as NAEDA’s legal counsel, during Bingham’s term on the NAEDA Board of Directors.
“I had the opportunity to work very closely with he, Tom Nobbe and Joe Nash as leaders of a NAEDA task force that was focused on updates to NAEDA’s structure so it would be well-positioned to advocate for dealers for many years into the future. That process allowed me to get to know Blaine well and I saw firsthand his leadership skills that helped Bingham Equipment grow and thrive as an organization. Blaine’s style is very low-key and even-keel and he’s never going to let you know that he’s one of the smartest guys in the room. This approach allows him to bring together groups of people that have very different perspectives and help facilitate making good decisions in even very difficult circumstances.
“Another key benefit of Blaine’s leadership approach is that he doesn’t alienate people that may disagree with him. This allows him to be an effective leader for the long-term and I’m sure it has played a role in the long-term success of their organization.
“What has really impressed me is Blaine’s ability to manage his business while also giving a tremendous amount of time to the association where his focus was always on helping the association advocate for all dealers. Blaine understands the value of a strong association and has always supported its activities through his time and leadership even though it meant time away from his own business.
—Lance Formwalt, attorney, Siegfried Bingham, Kansas City, Mo.
