Taking a leap of faith, Ryan Rasmussen relocated his family 1,000 miles away from their support network and left a 12-year career at Fastenal to join Motion and Flow Control Products (MFCP) as the sales leader. “I stepped into unfamiliar territory, with limited knowledge about the company and its products,” said Rasmussen. “It’s like venturing into uncharted waters, guided only by instinct and ambition.”
The risk paid off, and according to Rasmussen, the move was the best move of his career. “Sometimes, the greatest rewards come from the most daring choices,” he said. “I not only expanded my horizons but also contributed to the success of MFCP.”
Motion and Flow Control Products specializes in branch-based industrial distribution of hydraulic and fluid conveyance products and engineered systems. The company is a 56-location distributor across the western half of the U.S. and sells products to large manufacturers, defense and prime contractors, MRO users, and the oil and gas industry.
“Ryan took a sleepy industrial business and put it on a remarkable growth trajectory,” said his colleagues. When Rasmussen joined the company in January of 2020, MFCP was a $130 million revenue organization. Rasmussen built a sales team and helped lead the team to almost $300 million in revenue.
Under Rasmussen’s watch, the firm has opened approximately 20 startup locations (greenfield locations) and his leadership helped them become profitable within six months on average. Rasmussen personally recruited the vice president of procurement and numerous sales leaders and high-level technical salespeople.
All 56 branch locations report to Rasmussen. As a result of the growth and success of the company, MFCP was recognized in 2023 as the 36th largest industrial distributor on the “Big 50” list with its 60+ locations and 660+ employees serving their customers.
“Ryan is a good developer of talent and has developed high-performance leaders throughout the organization,” said his colleagues. “He is an empowering, empathetic leader who people want to follow, and his character and integrity are of the highest caliber.”
According to Rasmussen, successful leaders are motivating, ambitious, approachable, resilient, decisive and humble. “A successful leader can build an elite team that is laser-focused and driven to accomplish the mission and vision of the organization,” he said.
If Rasmussen could give advice to his younger self, it would be to “make earning wealth in knowledge your first priority, and earning wealth in finances will take care of itself.
