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Mining Equipment Entrepreneur Digs Deep in Everything He Does Creativity is a multi-generational legacy at Masaba Mining Equipment, a Vermillion, S.D.-based firm that designs and fabricates a complete line of aggregate processing equipment for use in mining and quarrying operations. "Masaba was founded on innovation and creativity," says Jerad Higman, the company’s president, representing the third generation of Higmans to head up the enterprise. "My grandfather and father came up with innovative ideas to process gravel and build their own equipment out of necessity. Times were tight, and they figured they could build their own equipment cheaper and customize it to fit their needs." With a degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Nebraska, where he played outside linebacker on the undefeated 1994 Cornhuskers football team and achieved All Academic Big 8 honors, Higman is well-equipped to continue the family tradition of combining creativity, innovation and toughness. And that last quality is no afterthought. In fact, it’s reflected in the company’s very name. Following the grand opening of Masaba’s new 100,000-square-foot facility in 2005, a reporter for a local newspaper described Masaba as being "as tough and unrelenting as the rugged iron ore range in northern Minnesota where it derived its name." After college, Higman worked at a number of companies, including Stryker Instruments and Andersen Consulting, developing and honing the business and engineering skills he would eventually put to use in his leadership role at Masaba. The preparation was critical, he knew, because the shoes he had to fill were big ones. Masaba’s history begins in 1939, when Harold Higman, Sr. founded Higman Sand and Gravel, a business he, and later his son, would run for more than half a century in Akron, Iowa. Right from the beginning, the equipment Higman, Sr. needed was hard to come by, and creativity became his ace in the hole as he began designing and building his own innovative machinery.
Like his father before him, Jerad Higman spent much of his early life immersed in the family business, experience that has served him well since he bought the company and incorporated it in 1999. Since then, he has grown Masaba’s annual sales volume tenfold and has expanded its workforce from fewer than a dozen employees to more than 80. TEAM EFFORT "The key to that growth has been the Masaba team," he comments. "We have a great group of people who make up that team. Not only are they passionate about what they do, they also take a lot of pride in their work. That attitude carries over into our core values as a company, which are to provide unmatched service and to build the best-quality equipment on the market."In some ways, Jerad Higman’s entire life seems to have been preparation for what he does today. Growing up in a family business, he got to spend a great deal of time with his grandfather, which he describes as one of the defining experiences of his life. "I learned the value of hard work from a guy who lived through the Great Depression," he remarks. "When most of my friends were playing baseball and hanging out at the swimming pool in the summer months, I was putting in 70-plus hours of work at the family gravel pit every week" Make no mistake, though. There is no trace of complaint in Higman’s voice as he recalls those times. He credits his grandfather and father with ingraining the importance of hard work in him at an early age. "They taught me that I should never give up, and that whatever I do I should do right or not at all," he says. Clearly, those lessons took, and they have served Higman well in many areas of his life. When he arrived as a freshman at the University of Nebraska, the Cornhuskers enjoyed almost mythic status under legendary coach Tom Osborne as one of the greatest college football teams of all time. For an unrecruited player to make the squad was virtually unheard of, but that’s just what Higman did. "I walked on as a linebacker for Coach Osborne in the fall of 1990, and it was there that I developed true character through perseverance," he says. That quality served him as well in the classroom as on the football field, as Higman faced the academic rigors of the school’s tough mechanical engineering program. His college experience still stands in his memory as the greatest challenge he’s faced in life, both physically and mentally.
Soon after taking over Masaba in 1999, Higman began recruiting talented employees to build an engineering department that would be able to work closely with the company’s customers to develop a full assortment of aggregate processing equipment. Today, its product lineup includes a wide assortment of portable crushing, screening and wash plants as well as a complete line of conveyors, surge bins and feeder hoppers.
RAPID GROWTH All the company’s products are designed and manufactured to endure in the most demanding environments, and the positive reception the company’s line has received within the mining industry has enabled Masaba to achieve its rapid growth.None of it comes as any surprise to Higman. "Failure has never been an option," he states. "I saw a straightforward niche in the market: Give the customers what they want!" Higman’s business strategy is equally straightforward, built on four simple principles: provide the best service and quality; design and manufacture the most rugged equipment in the industry; give customers the ability to customize their equipment to meet their needs; and price competitively. "I knew as long as we stuck to those principles, we would succeed." As solid as Higman’s background, personal attributes and business strategy might be, he acknowledges that creativity is an important additive to the mix. "Being a business owner today, you have to be creative, otherwise, you will not be in business long," he observes. "As a manufacturer, we need to be creative not only with our designs, but also in our approach to how we do business. Most importantly, though, we have to be creative in how we recruit and retain good people, who make up the Masaba team." Higman’s creativity has manifested itself in some interesting ways over the years, such as the pedigree of his first office. Masaba purchased an old implement shed from a local farmer, and Higman staked out a corner that had been used for refrigerated egg storage as his "executive suite." The conference table was an old cable spool, about four-foot in diameter, around which he and his associates would sit and brainstorm ideas. "There were many late nights with just me and the mice in the walls," he remembers.
"We realized the governor has a daughter going to the University of South Dakota, so we made him an office here in our plant," he announced to a delighted crowd of spectators. "He’s more than welcome to come here anytime he’s in southeast South Dakota and needs to get some work done." The governor was suitably impressed – both by the offer and by Higman’s irrepressible creativity.
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