Investing in the Future: Passing On 125 Years of Knowledge

Trip Kern listens as Tarak Mehta, President and CEO, addresses the most recent class of Timken sales engineers.

Trip Kern just celebrated 35 years with Timken, and he’s happily spending his final years with the company doing something that might have surprised him as a young person.

“Back in my school days, I thought I wasn’t interested in teaching or sales,” Kern says. But with a minor in psychology at North Carolina State, where he got his mechanical engineering degree, he was well-equipped for his first job as a Sales Engineer at Torrington, which became part of The Timken Company when it was acquired in 2003.

Today, he manages sales training for new Timken engineers. We spoke to him about his career, and how Timken trainers harness the skills and interests of the next generation to make sure the company stays strong.

Why is training so important at Timken?

Kern: Excellence first, which is achieved through continuous improvement. It’s important to pass on company knowledge and to introduce new concepts and ideas so we can meet the needs of continually evolving markets. Lifelong learning is a longtime Timken value — if you’re always learning, you’re more likely to be excited about your work and to feel like you’re making a difference for your customers and the world.

This is your sixth year leading Foundations of Timken Excellence sales training for new Timken engineers. What about this generation challenges and inspires you?

Kern: They’re my youngest daughter’s age, so I feel I can connect. They were in high school during the pandemic, which affected them deeply. Many of these young people hope to stay close to their families, which can make sales career placements a challenge, but also an eye-opening experience.

Beyond that, many are curiosity sponges, which is a great joy. Some are incredibly adventurous and excited about the variety of opportunities available now that Timken comprises such a wide range of both Industrial Motion and Engineered Bearing businesses across our global footprint.

These young people are interested in and concerned about our world. I’d say working on renewable energy is a primary driver for  a majority of  the team. They’re also excited about automation — working smarter, not harder — and exploring ways that our solutions in industries such as food and beverage can help to address food insecurity around the world.

What skills are you particularly focused on, to help make sure Timken can meet the challenges of the next few decades?

Kern: Timken has been on a globalization path, and Tarak Mehta, our new president and CEO, is set to take that to another level. Each team member must nurture a global mindset, which is as much about diversity of thought, as it is culture and ethnicity.

Relationship-building is a constant theme because when you’re working across time zones you don’t just bump into everyone in the cafeteria. There’s a huge amount of support available across this company, and we drive that hard through key contact meetings and networking. Whether it’s an internal contact or a customer, you want to make sure that when they see your name on an email or text, your face pops into their mind.

“If you’re always learning, you’re more likely to be excited about your work and to feel like you’re making a difference for your customers and the world.”

Trip Kern
Sales Training Manager

Looking back over your career, what advice do you have for young engineers today?

Kern: I love watching the energy in a room pass from one person to another – peers learning from each other. When I look back, I can point to several people who played pivotal roles as mentors in some of the rooms I found myself in over the years. A few became lifelong friends.

Look around you, wherever you are, and see what you can do to create space for collaboration and problem-solving. Think about it like you’re trying to get over a tall fence: “If I put my hands together, you can put your foot right there and I’ll lift you up. Together, we can solve the challenges we face.”

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Last Updated: 2024/12/4

Published: 2024/12/2