Our Guest speaker last Thursday was retired agricultural entrepreneur John Twomey. His inspirational six-decade-long entrepreneurial success story is documented below by Midwest Entrepreneurs student Tyler Bean.

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John Twomey shared with the class last Thursday his compelling story of becoming a successful entrepreneur in a company he started over 60 years ago. Emerging from humble Depression-era beginnings, he came to eventually operate one of the most successful grain elevator and loading facilities in the entire United States. He is a true role model; an honest, hardworking man who has never stopped doing his very best from early childhood until today.

Twomey was born in 1923, back then corn was around ten cents per bushel (today it’s around four dollars). John identified himself early on as a workaholic, much like his father was when growing up when needing to save his eighty acre farm. He said that this was an inspiration for him to do well, “it’s all about products of your environment”, he said.  Into high school, Twomey was a basketball manager and ran track and field quoting times as “great experiences” and talked about how these times became a part of who he is; essential to any entrepreneur.

After running cross country and track at Western Illinois University, Twomey became a D-24 Bomber for the United States Army, while shorty after receiving his Master’s Degree from the University of Illinois. Twomey began his entrepreneurial journey by starting a farm, just like his father did. Twomey later came up with an idea to help store grain more efficiently for others to buy. And from one grain elevator that burnt down in 1956 Twomey created eight separate custom made grain elevators (240 ft. long and 600 ft. wide). It was like no one had ever seen before. And soon after John received visitors from Texas, Ohio, and Iowa that wanted to see how he did it. Because of this idea John Twomey became the most successful river elevator and grain loading entrepreneur in Warren County.

Human resource issues were also important to Mr. Twomey’s entrepreneurial success. When hiring new employees John didn’t always look at the tangible assets, he would always hire the employee on the person, not the task at hand. Explaining, “Until the right person came through the door, we wouldn’t hire anybody”. He told us about once even hiring a worker when no new employees were needed. Twomey simply thought the man was a good person and would be an excellent worker and wanted him to work for his company, so he hired him for no particular position.

John Twomey’s Midwestern roots, diligence, and ‘always moving forward’ attitude made great characteristics for a great man. He showed our class that anything is possible with an idea and the inspiration. Twomey had the stick-to-it-iveness to never stop chasing his dreams and knew that one day they would all come true. His business ethics are something that you don’t find commonly in the real world today. Mr. Twomey may be the most successful entrepreneur our class has seen. We all have something to learn from his success.

Tyler Bean

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Note from Prof. Gabel: Nicely said Tyler… I wish to add two points to your summary of Mr. Twomey’s presentation.

First, reiterating the theme of my blog entry for John’s visit to the Midwest Entrepreneurs class last year, the entrepreneurial story we were treated to last Thursday exemplifies entrepreneurism and business as it can and should be (but is far too often not). John Twomey did things the right way for 60 years. He continues to do things that way today in retirement; managing the foundation he created that donates money to local and regional schools, churches, and charities. He was and remains the epitome of a community-oriented business person; and a true role model for others.

Second, the central, driving role of innovation is highlighted in Twomey’s entrepreneurial story. Like all of our guest speakers to date this semester, Twomey’s business model was founded around customer service, customer satisfaction, and the resultant spread of positive word-of-mouth (WOM) communication. However, what propelled John’s business to heights not seen with other speakers was his creation of a completely new way to handle grain. He brought with him to the class the actual original drawing of this ground-breaking innovation. It allowed his company to handle 6-7 times as much grain as before and to hold it and keep it fresher longer. It is what propelled his family’s business to become one of the most successful grain storage and agricultural service firms not only in Western Illinois, but in the entire United States.

The culmination of this 60 year-long local entrepreneurial success story came in late 2011 when the business was sold to Consolidated Grain and Barge, Inc. for a large sum of money (although the family still runs a farming business, the CGB -Twomey Group, based in Smithshire, IL).

Wow… I am more impressed with John Twomey each time I am around him. He is without question the epitome of entrepreneurism and business as it can and should be!!!