In March, we were thrilled to announce that the Evergreen Company of the Year® honoree for 2025 was Radio Flyer, led by Tugboat Institute® member Robert Pasin. Radio Flyer is an iconic American company; its little red wagon features prominently in the childhood memories of generations of Americans. The story of Radio Flyer is emblematic of both the American Dream and the essence of what it means to be Evergreen®.

Robert has generously shared Radio Flyer’s story with us in a variety of ways over the years. He hosted a Tugboat Institute Exemplar Visit in 2019, during which he and his team candidly pulled back the curtain and shared the thinking, strategies, and mindset that have helped them continue to exist and grow for over 100 years. He took to the stage and shared a talk at Tugboat Institute Summit in 2017 which focused on Paced Growth and Perseverance. (EJ+ subscribers can watch his talk HERE). He spoke to us again at Tugboat Institute Gathering of Teams in 2024 in a talk that featured their practices and thinking around Pragmatic Innovation. (EJ+ subscribers can watch his talk HERE).

Today, we’ve invited Robert to share some perspectives on his family company with which we may be less familiar. In our interview, he addressed what two more of the Evergreen 7Ps® principles–Profit and People First–mean to him, and how they show up at Radio Flyer. His reflections are wonderful examples of exactly what Evergreen excellence looks like in action.

CAN YOU SHARE A STORY ABOUT RADIO FLYER’S THINKING ABOUT PROFIT?

I was 23 when I started at Radio Flyer. In my first few weeks working at the company, my dad, who was the CEO at the time, stopped by and said, “Hey, Robert, come here for a minute? I’d like you to meet Jerry. He’s from the bank and he’s here to help us.” Jerry brought me into a conference room and after brief pleasantries, he got serious and started yelling at me, “You have no cash! Do you understand you guys have no cash?!” His face got redder and redder and he kept repeating the words, “YOU HAVE NO CASH!” Then he paused and stared hard into my eyes. After what seemed like a long time, I tentatively asked, “How much cash are we supposed to have?” He continued staring at me for a few moments then burst out laughing. Jerry went on to explain our situation and it wasn’t pretty. We had been losing money for the past few years, and we had a heavy debt load. “Do you know why I’m here?” asked Jerry rhetorically. “I’m here because the bank doesn’t think you guys are going to make it and they don’t want to loan your dad any more money.” My meeting with Jerry went on for at least another hour, during which time he schooled me on Cash Flow & Profitability 101. Basically, he scared the hell out of me – precisely his goal.

Walking out of that meeting I said to myself, “I never want to be in this position again.” It set me on the course of digging into the details of defining our profitability by product and by customer and getting really disciplined about managing the company profitably. Whether it’s your main reason for being in business or not, and it is likely not if you are an Evergreen leader, it is the key to survival and absolutely necessary. Nothing works for long without steady, consistent Profit.

CAN YOU SHARE AN EXAMPLE OF WHAT PEOPLE FIRST LOOKS LIKE AT RADIO FLYER?

I believe that you must design your culture like it is your most important product – because it is. No matter what business you are in, the success of your company hinges on your team. We recently put together a book called, “How to Be a FUNomenal Flyer,” and it is the culmination of many years of designing the team & culture at Radio Flyer. When a new Flyer (that’s what we call our employees) joins the company, they now receive this book. It was designed to answer the question every new hire asks within days of arriving; “How can I be successful here?”

In the introduction to this book, I laid out my People First philosophy for our team. Every time we touch people’s lives, they will feel FUNomenal. That’s our Little Red Rule. Our Little Red Rule is a spin on the Golden Rule — treat others as we wish to be treated. It’s a basic human truth and ideal. For me, it means treating every person with dignity and respect, creating a work environment that inspires each Flyer to become their best self, and building a culture where everybody understands that their job is crucial to delivering the amazing products, excellent service, and joyful experiences that are our goals.

The book goes on to share our vision, our values, our mission, and what it looks like to be a great team player at Radio Flyer. Aside from being designed to clearly answer that very common question about success at Radio Flyer, we aim to communicate how important the well-being of every team member is to us, and to our success as a company. Our inclusive, respectful, and welcoming culture aims to make our team feel welcomed and like they belong. We emphasize the importance of working as a team, listening to one another, being actively inclusive, and being playful. We are proud of this book because we feel we have finally found a way to articulate and share the ‘something special’ that we have here at Radio Flyer.

WHAT HAS BEEN THE MOST IMPACTFUL PART OF BEING A MEMBER OF THE EVERGREEN COMMUNITY FOR YOU AND FOR RADIO FLYER?

As a leader in a privately held company, it is easy to become isolated. One of the things I value most about the Evergreen community is the opportunity to meet other leaders with shared values and learn how they do what they do. Visiting other companies through Exemplar events is always enlightening and a lot of fun. These interactions recharge my batteries and stimulate a lot of ideas for how I can do a better job leading Radio Flyer. I’m grateful to be part of it.