MEL #064 | From Plant Manager to Startup Founder through Continuous Learning and Customer Empathy with Jari Navarro Salas

Navarro (00:00)
For me, leadership. It’s not about what you say.

It’s not about the things you listen, it’s about how you behave, know, leadership and culture. for me, culture is just like that. And obviously you have to live by example, right? And sometimes it’s hard, you know, we are human, have ups and downs, we have different moods, but you know, leader, I think for me, top one responsibility is about taking care about the company culture all the time.

ADAMS (00:55)
In this episode, I speak with Jari Navarro Salas, founder and president of Inventio, a manufacturing technology and consulting company that helps manufacturers improve productivity by combining analytic software, operational expertise, and data-driven decision making. Jari shares how he entered engineering unexpectedly after an arts-focused high school education. A single physics course revealed a passion for solving real-world problems and changed the direction of his career.

He explains how curiosity, rather than early talent, became the foundation for long-term success. In our leadership segment, Jari reflects on two decades in manufacturing, progressing from technician to plant manager. An MIT executive MBA sparked his transition into entrepreneurship, where he applied deep customer empathy and manufacturing expertise to build software for industry. He emphasizes customer centricity, co-creation, and persistence in business development. Finally,

Jari explains that leadership begins with culture, values, and personal example. He closes by encouraging engineers to define their values, lead themselves first, and create visions that inspire others. Explore the full episode summary, including guest bio, key takeaways, transcript, and recommended resources in the show notes at drangeliqueadams.com/slash podcast. Without further delay, here is my conversation with Jari Navarro Salas.

ADAMS (02:23)
Hi, Jari welcome to Mastering Engineering Leadership.

Navarro (02:25)
Thank you Angelique for having me. a pleasure, a privilege to be here with you.

ADAMS (02:30)
Thank you. I’m thrilled to have you here. Can you start by telling us how you got into engineering as a career path?

Navarro (02:35)
Well, that’s a really good question. And in fact, when I graduated from college, from high school, I didn’t know what exactly to do. You know, I was in my eighties or something like that, and that kind of person that was a little confused about how to do things moving forward. So I entered to a public university. I started in a public university.

And I just did like a general studies here in Costa Rica. If you start in a public university, you have to spend one year doing like a general studies. And by general studies are like you have to do history, philosophy, investigations, methods, and things like that. But I was totally confused about what’s next. And I decided, if I’m going to start with

you know, mathematics, very basic. In fact, I was a very bad student in high school in mathematics, but I don’t know, you know, in university with a different focus, with a different mindset, I started to like it. The problem that I had was that, you know, my score for entering in engineering school wasn’t good, right? So say, okay, you know,

I’m start to liking something like this, but unfortunately, you know, my score is not enough to get into engineering. So I decided to explore in private universities. And I remembered that I had, you know, some extra money there. you know, I just suddenly I went to this private university and I

read all the different brochures about the different careers and in a very impulsive way I decided, you know, I really like this electromechanical engineering. And electromechanical engineering, one of the things that I liked the most was, you know, it’s a blend between mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, and electronic engineering. So it was very, very diverse.

And I say, OK, let’s try it. So I’m going to start with the first quarter. Let’s see what’s happened. And I remember that I did physics one. And I think calculus one or something like that. Just two classes because, you know, I was very skeptical about engineering was something for me. And

I came from my high school was a art school. totally different. So my background in high school was music and arts and many other stuff, but not science at all. They are very strong in art. I think it’s the main and the biggest art school down here in Costa Rica, but nothing related with science.

So I decided to start with that, the physics one and calculus one. And I really enjoyed doing the physics one exercises, the elemental stuff regarding static and dynamic and calculate the velocity and time and a speed and acceleration and Newton’s law and things like that. And I love it. It’s like, my God, this is

so real. can calculate, you know, how things goes in the real world. And, you know, I just like it. And it turned to be something that really interested me, you know, during my high school years, my mind was in anything a part of the academic. And for first time, I was really engaged in science, physics.

And the rest was like thermodynamics and physics to lineal circuits and heat transfer, mechanical fluids and so forth. So I really enjoyed it. And that’s why I started in engineering, it was a strange way of getting involved in this field.

ADAMS (06:39)
Yeah, that is a really unique starting point in terms of having had not much background at all in high school and then trying it, but then also in succeeding in the early stages. I have heard many of my guests say, maybe I wanted to be in engineering and I tried it and I really struggled in the beginning and I had to sort of claw my way out. So it’s really, it is an interesting take on things, your perspective. And then can you talk a little bit about what you’ve

been doing after you finish your undergraduate degree?

Navarro (07:07)
Yeah, of course. The first job experience I had was in manufacturing. In fact, once I entered in manufacturing, I’ll be there for two decades. But I started as an electronic technician in a company down here in Costa Rica, and they produce electronic devices.

providing support to different machines in the production line and doing troubleshooting and understanding how things work. And it’s interesting because when you are in manufacturing, you are against the clock, right? Because you are supporting production lines. And it’s that pressure that you have to figure out what is happening and solve it.

as fast as possible with that pressure, right, from the other part of the business because the line was down. And, but I really enjoyed trying to solve things. And I think by that time, I just, you know, I include the engineering with problem solving. I consider myself a problem solver since that time.

because I’m been solving problems for 20 years. In fact, I love problems because if there aren’t problems, I cannot do anything, right? So I’m a problem solver. So I started in that. Suddenly, there was an opportunity to move to Puerto Rico because there were two Costa Ricans living in Puerto Rico. And I met those guys down here in Costa Rica.

and they need somebody to increase and improve the technical expertise related with electronics, right? How to do support to electronics, but in different industry, this was more for the food and beverage industry, specifically the bottling industry. So I started, I just spent almost two years in the electronic devices industry, then moved to Puerto Rico.

I had 20 years old or something like that when I moved from Costa Rica to Puerto Rico. And I spent the first six years as automation engineer. And I love it. And automation engineer is like, you know, you have to create code in PLCs and other devices to control staff, right? And for me, it a kind of playground, right? It’s like a

augmented legos, You know, it’s not that technically even because, you know, I could control steam or I could control speed or I could program conveyors or thermal process or, you know, I was involved in wastewater treatment plants, machinery, CO2 plant. So I learned a lot about refrigeration and things related with ammonia.

and boilers. So I did many stuff related with controls and automation. And by that time, you know, was super tough because I was the only person in the automation department. So the automation department was me and myself and Jari, right? So I had to do everything. And sometimes, you know, I had to face a situation where I didn’t have nobody to ask, right?

So, but I was very, I don’t know, determined to solve things, whatever it takes. So for instances, I start doing a troubleshooting, the line was down, the production line was down. They called me, you have to start doing the troubleshooting. And, you know, I could spend all night trying to figure it out.

My boss will say, okay, you can go rest. No, no, no, no, I have to solve this and I’ll move those there and let me try this. know, that determination, you know, move me in a different levels within the organization because then, you know, the leadership teams starting to involving in some other projects, you know, in bigger magnitudes, right?

So I became kind of this technical advisor for the leadership team. So every time they have to purchase a new process, a new production line, I was the person that was involved in doing the technical assessment. Okay, is this system compatible with the rest of the machineries that we have to integrate with? So I was the person responsible to do

the factory assessment test. So I start traveling to different countries, France, Germany, Mexico, the US to do the factory assessment test. Once all this equipment came to the plant, I was responsible for the startup of that. So in less than three days running 24 hours, we have to take out the

big machine to put a new one, put it into production and then train the people and then create all the documentation to do supporting and stuff. So my first six years in Puerto Rico was as automation engineer. And suddenly the company start growing and acquiring new businesses, right? And I remember they purchased a big

building that used to belong to a pharmaceutical company and they decided to do another bottling company. And I was part of the, you know, the project team, you know, in order to put all the machineries and helping another engineering guys doing the utilities and facilities. So in very quick time, we complete, you know, the assembly of that new plan.

And I remember one Friday, I was just like 31 years old. remember a Friday afternoon when the director of operation of the company say, hey, you know what, we have an opportunity for you. I think you can be responsible for being the plan manager of that company. So 31 years old, I became the plan manager of, you know, full operation.

And suddenly, you know, I turned this planning to my engineering and management lab. Yeah, that’s my lab for sure. Because I love learning in but you know, you really grasp something when you apply what you have learned, right? Right. Mende Manos and you know that. So I started, you know,

understanding supply chain. So I did a certification in supply chain management. I did a certification with the American Society for Quality. And I did some other stuff related with reliability engineering. And back in days, I was very sure that we need that strong team. And we created a really, really strong team.

And then, you know, I learned about operational excellence as well, all these lean methodologies and lean theory. So we did our manufacturing strategy. And, you know, what we had in mind from day one was like, have to turn this operation into a work class operation. So how to do that?

is about learning the best practices worldwide, apply it, iterate, and discern what is working with what is not, right? And in less than three years, we started with 14 people. We went like 150 for production lines, two injection molding machines. We became the leaders in the

water bottling industry in Puerto Rico and was super good. I really love it. I really enjoy it. And I think that was between 2011 and 2018. So during the last two years, it was when I started my executive MBA at MIT and, you know,

That’s another chapter because once I was there and I was involved in this entrepreneurial spirit and innovation and all these classes that, you know, I just was listening the first two minutes and the other 58 minutes, I was like thinking what I’m to do with my life because this guy are opening some doors that I haven’t seen before. And then, you know, I decided to

to quit my job, great job, you know, in good terms, I left the company in super good terms. And, you know, that was, I think the toughest pivot that I’ve ever done in my career because I moved from manufacturing, food and beverage, I was involved with

startup from some guys there at MIT in the realm of advanced analytics when, know, eight years ago, you know, the level of AI is not like what it is right now. So the person involved from that was very, very unique. So that’s kind of my transition, the first professional experiences.

always involved in manufacturing.

ADAMS (16:31)
Jari, as you mentioned, you got the entrepreneurial bug at MIT, which happened to so many of our fellow classmates. Can you talk a little bit about that actual transition, maybe in terms of the skills that you’re using from your deep manufacturing expertise to what you’re doing now, as well as what you learned at MIT and other things that you’re finding yourself really leveraging as you’ve shifted to entrepreneurship?

Navarro (16:59)
Yeah, sure. So, well, basically right now, you know, one of my strengths is I consider myself a subject matter expert in manufacturing because I’ve been involved in that for two decades. you know, in the entrepreneurial, one of the most important parts is how to solve somebody’s problems. Right. And because I was so many years in the other side of the coin,

I knew at first hand, which are the pain points of those people, right? So we develop a solution to solve those problems that plan managers, production managers, maintenance manager, reliability engineers have to face on a daily basis, right? So in the entrepreneurial world, think

First thing is to you have to define who, which are the problem that you want to solve and who are that person that is suffering those problems, right? And that was something very different from the manufacturing standpoint, because when you are in the other side, you don’t have to think about who is your persona or what is the problem is basically you need that.

you need to run that production line in the best way as possible. So we have that customer centric approach. And I think that has been one of our advantage because I have full empathy with our customer because we understand pretty well what they are suffering. I think the biggest challenge, a part of that is the commercial part.

right? The business development. I think this is the hardest part is the part where you have to persist the most, right? You have to, you are nobody when you start with this and, people will hire you because of trust. But trust is something very ambiguous, right? you cannot articulate exactly what it’s trust. It’s more a feeling than another thing, right? And when you talk,

with somebody, a potential customer, have to turn on that, how to create empathy, how to create trust. And once you do that and they trust you, of course, you have to do the best to make sure that you are solving somebody else’s problem. One of the inconveniences is like most of your customers, necessarily can articulate

what are their problems, right? It’s your job to through an interview and through good questions to find out what are those pain points, right? And the other thing that I learned is co-creation. And I learned this from one of our team members. He’s a UX, UI designer.

And these guys, have that chip, you know, super on. And that’s something that I’ve learned ultimately, right? I know that I have the expertise, but if we co-create with our customer, the change management process is easier to navigate. So I think I could summarize those, you know, problem solving, customer centricity, co-creation.

commercial like those skills that I have to polish and that I have to work more. The other stuff like finance and strategy, you know, there are many information about that is more concrete, but the other ones is more like the learning process is more iterative, right? You have to iterate, you have this work, this nothing and how to

find out the best approach to move forward with this entrepreneurial journey.

ADAMS (20:54)
Jari, can you give us an example of how you use leadership skills in your work?

Navarro (20:58)
Yes. let’s start mentioning that I consider myself that chief cultural officer, you know, the president of the company, but I think my number one role is culture. So for me, culture is, is everything. And, we have been very intentional with the culture we want in our company. So for example, be humble.

ADAMS (21:04)
Okay.

Navarro (21:22)
Humble means like, if you don’t know the answer, raise your hand. I don’t know the answer to admit that you don’t know something. Humble in terms of asking for help. Collaboration in our company is super important that if somebody is blocked and needs support, we are going to leave our staff and we are going to support that person.

Transparency for us is super important. So we have this strong methodologies and agile methodologies and transparency is super important. Everybody’s aware about what everybody’s doing. Everybody’s aware about how everybody’s performing. So transparency is super important. we consider the team members’ opinion

seriously. You know, we have we are a software development company. So we have this, you know, spring review and retrospective. And in the retrospective, everybody is vocal. We don’t have the option of you say something or not. No, no, have to say something. So for us, it’s important to have face to face meetings. In fact, part of our policy is, you know, we are

100 % remote that cameras on and why because for me communication more than 50 % of communication is nonverbal. Right. So if I’m, if I say something or if somebody say something and I don’t understand, but I don’t say nothing, but people can see it in my face. It’s like, okay, this guy is not understanding nothing. No guys, I don’t know. So

You know, that’s part of the the theme. So we are very, very intentional with with our values. We make decision based on values. We take seriously the opinion of others in order to improve our processes. We enjoy the journey for sure. And basically, for me, leadership. It’s not about what you say.

It’s not about the things you listen, it’s about how you behave, know, leadership and culture. for me, culture is just like that. And obviously you have to live by example, right? And sometimes it’s hard, you know, we are human, have ups and downs, we have different moods, but you know, leader, I think for me, top one responsibility is about

taking care about the company culture all the time. Right. So one of the things we do, Angelique, and this is very curious, my people decide who’s going to decide who’s going to be the next team member, the peers. So the peers are part of the interview. So for example, we just hire some developers

And of course there is our engineer manager, he prepare a test. So we have to understand how are the skills check, you know, skills checks. But the second stage is that person with their, their team member, right? The person that will spend the most of the time in, in, in it’s like just, just stuck, stuck with them. And if they feel that

this is not a humble guy or this is not transparent or or he believes he’s a rock star. He’s not a team player. The process ends up for that person. So we are very intentional from hiring, developing and behaving. You know, for for us, I think is one of the most important things. So. Leadership for me is.

culture, right? And once you decide your values, you have to be very thoughtful about that, right? Because you see a lot of world papers and boardrooms about integrity and how you use that, you know? We have linked those values with daily activities or things that you will face on a daily basis, right?

If you are in this situation, just remember that this value will help you. All right. So customer centricity, it is another value. If we have one of our customers, they are facing a problem with the software. Everybody in the organization, they have to stop what they are doing. Apply to myself, of course, we have to stop what we are doing. And let’s solve that problem. Of course, that will affect

our spring objectives or a spring goal, but that’s totally fine. And this totally justifiable, right? So I think that I will summarize it in that way. So for me, leadership, culture, culture, values, and stick on your values. And obvious, you have to revisit your values, right? Because depend on where you are in your company journey, maybe you have to do some tweaks.

I think that’s my approach.

ADAMS (26:07)
Thanks for that, Jari And I love that you said that leadership, first of all, the focus on culture, I completely agree. And I love that you talked about the behaviors, I agree with you, you have to go from the high level abstract values. And as you say, so many people, they stop there and they make pretty pictures and it’s wallpaper.

You have to translate that into actual actions. And I like that. One, because it then gives you tools for performance management fairly. People really understand how they’re being evaluated in addition to their technical skills. But the other thing I really love about that is, to me, it makes leadership accessible. That means that you can’t act in a leadership way. You can be a leader in your own domain when you are behaving.

in accordance with the values of the company. And so you don’t need a formal title for that. Anybody can do that at any time. And so I just love the way you frame that. I’m curious, Jari, how you go about reinforcing those behaviors and values? Whether it be, want more of what you’re doing, or I actually

want less of the way you’re doing it. want you to, I want to redirect you to this other way.

Navarro (27:17)
think

we have the hiring process is one of them because we need to understand that the person that we are going to hire, they already have those values and they leave those values. It’s natural for them. That’s the first. Number two, as I mentioned, we have this methodology scrum. So every two weeks,

we are reflecting on many stuff. And the third, we really have incentivized culture because we have a performance bonus tied on that. Remember, what we sell is productivity for manufacturing industry, but if we are not productive, how you can sell productivity, right? So we have to be productive. It’s part of our values.

But the performance bonus that we have is, I think, 60 to 70 % productivity as a team and individually. And the other 40 to 30 % is culture. The contracts we have, once I hire somebody, that contract, there is all the outline of the

of the different values. When we post a new job, the first thing you will see in our post is our value. So we have several reinforcing loops. think that the most direct, most often, or with the highest frequency is the reviewer retrospective, because we access

not just that we complete the task, but how the team feels, right? And we take action on that. It’s not like people, sometimes employees are frustrated and they, because they are saying over and over again, the same things and nothing happened, right? And then your company turns into a silence organization.

people because people say what I’m going to say something if they do nothing, right. So every two weeks we are in that tomorrow we have our our spring review and retro and we write down everything what they are saying. And once we do the next spring planning, we prioritize those stuff. So it’s always asking. The other thing that I do is

one-on-one meetings and not only with my direct reports, but the other guys suddenly say, man, let’s have a conversation. And I think the first question is, how are you? How you feel? How you feel? I’m not talking about technical staff. You have to have a balance on that as well. Obviously, there are some other

important task and the work should be done, right? But, you know, it’s like that. It’s leaving your values, right? So, obviously, leading by example is the main stuff, right? So I think once you start using it, in fact, there are some other reinforcement loops that happens in a natural way, right? Maybe I’m not detecting it, but it’s part of the

The daily, right? The daily conversation. Yeah.

ADAMS (30:25)
And Jari, at the time of this recording, I know you’ve just celebrated the four year anniversary of the company. And I’m curious if you have any significant evolution or maybe very importantly things that have remained exactly the same, because they were right four years ago. I know in startups, you know, there’s, there can be a lot of changes. Is there anything that you would note about that?

Navarro (30:45)
Yes, of course. For example, the first version of our software, we do software and consulting for manufacturing industry, specifically in the realm of food and beverage. And at the beginning, we were working with this kind of tool that track productivity, track downtime. Downtime is a very, very complex thing because

If you have a manufacturing plant with five production lines, you could have at least 2,000 different failure modes. And how to navigate that, you know, people cannot have 2,000 front lines. So discerning which are the most important things is crucial, right, in order to move the productivity needle. So we started on that.

And you know, our purpose is very clear for me is to increase or enhance productivity and prosperity for the manufacturing industry and its individuals. But what this means,

when you are productive, you will do more with less. That’s the straightforward definition. Do more with less. With less what? With less stress, with less hours.

with less waste, with less water, with less energy, right? So that has a ripple effect in the triple bottom line, which are, you know, the economic aspect, the social aspect, and the environmental aspect. So we start moving from just productivity to…

gather information about all the spectrum related with productivity, right? So now we are tracking, you know, things related with sustainability, like water consumption, like energy consumption, like CO2 emissions. We are tracking some other aspects that could affect productivity, for example, absenteeism,

Partiness, early outs, penalties, things like that. So we are developing modules, all of them related to navigate productivity, right? Once you have data across all those different realms, you can start doing correlations and you can start being more efficient in improving productivity, right? So basically what we are doing is this

kind of manufacturing analytics platform where the decision makers and the persons responsible for manufacturing, they don’t have to go to the HR software and then they go to the energy software or maintenance software or quality software. So our software is a kind of layer that is on top of different transactional softwares like, you know,

HR software, software, and we are collecting data in order to have a complete perspective about what is happening, right? Once you have this information in a clear way, it’s easier to make decisions, right? And we encourage moving from firefighting because it’s

If you are just solving today’s problem and you are not considering your biggest offender and your biggest opportunity, you are in this kind of a vicious cycle, right? Where you never stop, right? So the approach, yes, from when we started to today, we have expanded, but also, you know, we have developed some other services. For me,

You know, learning and development is super important. The access to information is there. But, you know, in the manufacturing landscape or in the manufacturing ground, consuming information is not that easy, right? It’s like, you know, how to put that information to solve the things that this person needs to solve on a daily basis. So

we develop another platform for doing exactly that. You know, it’s like you have your own Coursera or Udemy, but it’s for your company. All the content is related from your company or to your company. So yes, we have evolved in consulting services as well, because we find out that technology by itself is not enough. So you need to integrate certain processes as well.

And then we have that knowledge in manufacturing process. So we are combining and for us, you know, every solution should integrate the people, process and technology. You know, we start co-creating with the people, defining with them the new process, and then we are going to leverage by technology and all the other way around, right? So that’s kind of our approach and how

This is how we have evolved in the last four years.

ADAMS (35:41)
All right, Jari, as we wrap up, what advice do you have for engineers who are interested in pursuing leadership roles?

Navarro (35:46)
I think they need to reflect on what are the things that they value the most. Because at the end of the day, if you are not clear about your values,

If you don’t know, your values is very hard to make decisions, right? And it’s very hard to create visions. For me, leadership is about creating a vision, right? That you have to articulate, but that vision should be aligned with your values.

Because once you create a vision, the next step is that you need to sail that vision. And you have to motivate people to adopt that vision and be with you in the school bus, right? You have to get it on in your school bus. And if you don’t have that, how you are going to motivate that people or how you are going to

sell your vision, right? So for me, that’s extremely important, right? And

a holistic view of things because leadership is not about a job, right? Before leading somebody else, you have to lead the hardest person that is yourself, right?

I think that that’s the first thing you have to litter yourself. And the only way of doing is when you have very clear your values and how do you like that your life looks like, right? So I think for me that that’s important. Define your values, lead yourself first. Because if you cannot lead yourself first, it’s very hard to lead.

somebody else. think that could be my advice, right? It’s not very technical. I think it’s more philosophical or spiritual, if you will. But I think that’s, for me, think that that’s the best approach.

ADAMS (37:32)
Jari, thank you so much for sharing your insights with us today.

Navarro (37:34)
thank you very much for your time Angelique. Happy to be here.