The American Dream is Alive in Portland
PLI Systems, Inc. is a story of goat herding, soil stability… and a can-do spirit
In a land of raging rivers, volcanos, earthquakes and torrential downpours, PLI Systems, Inc. has dedicated itself for over 30 years to solving the Pacific Northwest’s difficult soil and foundation stabilization issues using industry-leading solutions.
It turns out foundations, both human and structural alike, are what make this Oregon-based company great. Manuel Castañeda, the Owner of PLI Systems, spent his childhood in a two-bedroom house surrounded by 11 brothers and sisters. His parents were goat herders and farmers from Rancho el Limón, a small village in Mexico. In 1977, his parents moved to Washington State to find their version of the American Dream.
A New Country
Castañeda immigrated to the United States in 1978, at age 14, leaving his two younger siblings behind. “I remember my older sister Martha teaching me about America,” says Castañeda. “She taught me many things when I arrived. On one weekend, she taught me the colors of traffic lights and what they meant. She taught me how to turn on a television, how to use a telephone, and how to change the temperature of the water coming out of the shower head.”
After high school, Castañeda worked many different jobs. “I was a goat herder for a little while and I worked on farms,” says Castañeda. “But when I turned 20 I knew I wanted to open my own business, so I started a landscaping company with my brother.”
It was then he realized he could be anything he wanted to be, as long as he worked hard enough. “The United States is indeed the land of opportunities. For someone like me, with average intelligence and not having experienced electricity until I was 14, starting a business six years later was the biggest blessing in life,” he says.
Hands-on Education
“I was at a patio and garden trade show in Portland when my life changed,” he adds. “I bumped—literally bumped—into a geotechnical engineer named Tony Wright, who became a mentor.” Wright was an important person in his life, helping Castañeda navigate the soil stability and deep foundation industry. “I have to admit that I had no master plan. My only mission was to move forward. If you keep moving, you will eventually bump into something,” he says.
After meeting Wright, PLI Systems began to grow—and grow quickly. “With everything that we had been through, I realized that having a can-do attitude is what makes the difference,” says Castañeda with a smile. “We find a solution to solve our clients’ problems. In return, we are rewarded with about 90 percent of our work being generated as repeat or referral business.” He adds, laughing, that the legion of unpaid sales staff (his euphemism for happy clients) is endless.
But it wasn’t always that way. Castañeda admits that the beginning of his business was strenuous. “We had a big loss as we were transitioning from building landscapes to repairing the damage done by landslides, installing piles for buildings and bridges,” he says. Tony took Castañeda under his wing and taught him the fundamentals of soil stabilization and repair. “I could count on my mentor Tony, he knew that we were inexperienced; therefore, all his instructions were clear and simple. Unfortunately, Tony died when we were just getting going.”
Like a ship lost at sea, PLI Systems found itself without a rudder. After a year of mourning and sticking to landscaping and minor landslide repairs, Castañeda began to reemerge in the soil stability business with vigor. “I met with other engineers, like John Cunningham, Kevin Foster and Greg LaVielle, who became unofficial mentors, too,” he shares. They started teaching Castañeda how to do more intricate engineering, as well as geotechnical engineering principles, and soon other engineers found out about PLI Systems and started sending work Castañeda’s way.
“These new engineers didn’t take the time to explain in simple language their reports and drawings the way my friends did. I started to worry. Points of fixity, axial loading, colluvial material and many other terms that were foreign to me were making me sweat,” says Castañeda. “I started asking myself, ‘What should I do? I could cause major problems if I don’t learn the engineering language.’”
Ever the entrepreneur, Castañeda decided to teach himself engineering. “I decided to show up at the ASCE meeting one day. I noticed they were charging $30 to get in. When I attempted to pay, they were looking for my name on a list. I quickly told them that I was not registered and I was there to learn about engineering. The gentleman let me know that these meetings were for people within the industry, or for engineers who could get continuing education credits.”
Undeterred, Castañeda requested to pay the fee so he could sit in on the meeting to learn what he could.
Although the ASCE representative still had reservations, he acquiesced to Castañeda’s persistence.
The next month, he showed up again at the ASCE meeting. And again. And again. “For me, it was like going to see a movie in a foreign language without subtitles,” he says, laughing. “About two years later, when a client showed me a problem, I was quick to respond that it appeared to be a rotational issue. “I told the client, ‘All we have to do is hire an engineer to design the fix and we can fix it,’ ” he recalls, to which she responded, “ ‘Are you an engineer?’ I kept having to let our clients know that I was not an
engineer. It became evident that, while I didn’t think I was learning much, at a minimum, I was beginning to understand and learn the engineering language.”
Ten years later, the same ASCE organization asked if he would be the guest speaker at one of their meetings. Castañeda says, “It taught me once more that, with focus and determination, even a slow learner with an average IQ can achieve.”
Can-Do Spirit
His can-do attitude and ambition have paved the way for many successes, including an especially wet adventure in 1986, when the Portland area received record amounts of rainfall. A doctor who lived on the side of a mountain called after hours, needing a house call.
“He told me, ‘My backyard is sliding slowing as I’m speaking to you,’ ” recalls Castañeda. “I was very concerned. This happened within the first year of my engineering education, so I told him to call an engineer, as I was not a licensed engineer.”
But the engineer didn’t answer his phone. “So,” adds Castañeda, “we dispatched the crews in the pitch dark and torrential rain with only hammers and pile drivers, and relied on what Wright had told me in the past. And it worked!”
A couple of weeks later, PLI Systems was known within a certain part of the market as the ground movement professionals. “I started getting calls from other clients asking me how I saved the doctor’s backyard during an active slide,” says Castañeda.
“I was shocked. My initial thought was that it was my obligation to respond, to give the client some comfort, but I didn’t think it would work. Not only was a client helped in an emergency, but the confidence level regarding our work went sky-high. At that moment, I knew that I really wanted to push the company to become a leader in the industry.”
Since then, PLI Systems has become one of the leading companies of its kind in Oregon, performing work related to soil stability, shoring, anchoring, deep foundations and piles. The company’s staff is also licensed to work in several states, including Washington, Arkansas, Idaho and Michigan. It is also certified as a disadvantaged business enterprise and a minority business enterprise.
The team continues to perform technically difficult assignments, including the geotechnical investigation for the Sellwood Bridge replacement in Portland, and the shotcrete design and implementation for the caracal enclosure at the Oregon Zoo.
“[I was] never taught what is and isn’t possible. In fact, we have a rule: please don’t call me to tell me you can’t do it. Figure it out. The job has to be done. … For this reason, I almost never get calls telling me that the job can’t be done.” Manuel Castañeda, Owner, PLI Systems, Inc.
Embracing the Human Spirit
Castañeda continues to believe it’s the human spirit that makes the company great. “Many of the workers in our firm are highly committed. I like to hire people who have been ‘hungry’ during their lives,” he says. “They have that can-do attitude.”
Maybe hiring underdogs is what makes PLI Systems so creative and resourceful. Castañeda makes it a point to hire from outside the industry. These team members are “never taught what is and isn’t possible. In fact, we have a rule: please don’t call me to tell me you can’t do it. Figure it out. The job has to be done. If you can’t do it, I will have to send someone else to do it,” Castañeda says. “For this reason, I almost never get calls telling me that the job can’t be done. Their attitudes as winners go sky-high when they start accomplishing challenging projects. After a few years, there is no mission impossible.”