Celebrating Five Years of Bringing Evergreen® Teams Together
Last week, we hosted our fifth annual Tugboat Institute® Gathering of Teams in Nashville, Tennessee. Many teams were in attendance for the fourth or even fifth time, and for them, it was an opportunity to reconnect with old friends, make new ones, and to continue to learn from the wisdom, best practices and hard-earned mistakes of other Evergreen companies across industries, sizes, geographies, business models and generations. For those teams that joined us for the first time, it was wonderful to observe their earnest engagement and their realization that they are not alone building and leading their companies – in alignment with the Evergreen 7Ps® principles.
Through both structured and unstructured conversations, attendees connected, learned, explored, and celebrated. At the center of the event, we all came together for five TED-style talks. We were treated to wisdom from one Tugboat member and one former member, as well as three distinguished thought leaders.
Robert Pasin is the third generation Chief Wagon Officer of the company his grandfather started and that you have likely known since childhood: Radio Flyer. When Robert stepped into the company at the age of 23, he quickly learned a lesson about the vulnerability of third generation businesses. An established success, whether it be a product or a service, can only carry you so far. The world keeps changing, and if your company does not change with it, decline is inevitable. He set to work reviving Radio Flyer through several Pragmatic Innovation approaches, ones that not only guided them out of the danger zone but, he shared, that have become the backbone of their ongoing product successes.
Our second speaker, Oliver Staehelin, was inspired early in his career to become a student of company culture when challenged by CEO Rich Fairbanks on his first day on the job at Capital One. Graduating from business school, Oliver co-founded a culture assessment company with Stanford Professor Charles O’Reilly. Professor O’Reilly’s research revealed the importance of a strong culture, defined as a company where the behaviors and norms of the company are clearly understood and honored at all levels of the organization. Oliver spoke to the competitive advantages of having a strong culture, especially in the context of very tight labor markets for decades to come.
We were honored that Dr. Robert I. Sutton, Stanford professor and author of many books including the renowned The No Asshole Rule, was able to join us just a week after the release of his newest book, The Friction Project. He shared the findings that he and his co-author, Huggy Rao, present in their new book about friction in the workplace. Human psychology is such that we tend to think of improvement and progress in terms of addition – we constantly look to add something new as we seek to move forward. However, sometimes it is more effective and important to remove something old, whether it be a product, process and/or program, in order to optimize overall performance and work satisfaction.
Our fourth speaker was Kelly D. Parker, a former marketing executive who has become fascinated by the power of storytelling. She now runs her own consulting firm and helps businesses and leaders discover the power of a well-told story to a clearly defined audience. Kelly shared her simple but powerful framework that can make a storyteller of all of us. As leaders of Purpose-driven companies, this is critical in internal and external communications.
Finally, we were thrilled to welcome Peter Zeihan to our stage. Peter is a renowned geopolitical scientist and is the author of many best-selling books including The Accidental Superpower, The Absent Superpower, and, more recently, The End of the World is Just the Beginning: Mapping the Collapse of Globalization. In an astoundingly far-ranging look at the global factors that will shape the coming decades, Peter shared why globalization is ending, and the impacts that will have on all countries and ultimately our businesses and lives. He foresees some uncomfortable realities ahead, but also acknowledges that the United States, Mexico, and Canada will be some of the best positioned regions to adapts to this change. In a provocative and engrossing talk, he gave us an enormous amount to think about, and left us all processing how we may have to adapt to a new world that could be far different from the one we all grew up in.
We are happy to be able to share these talks through our Evergreen Journal® in the coming months, so please keep an eye out for their release.
It’s been half a decade now that we have been bringing together Evergreen leadership teams to meet, learn, grow, and be inspired. Whenever Evergreen leaders gather, something special happens, but this event takes it to the next level. By inviting leadership teams and family members to immerse themselves in the Evergreen 7Ps principles, and to connect with other leaders working in similarly values-driven companies, the understanding of what it means to lead, grow, and adapt one’s Evergreen company seeps deeper into the fabric of each company. It is obviously important that a CEO or president anchor themselves in this thinking and commit to the Evergreen principles if they hope to build a wonderful company that will last for 100 years or more, but it can accelerate when the whole leadership team and company owners share in this vision and key practices. Tugboat Institute Gathering of Teams has become the unique place where that work can happen. To see how this community of teams has progressed in just five years is gratifying. Above all else, it confirms to all of us that we are onto something important. As we gain strength from one another, so grows our certainty that Evergreen companies can and will impact the world in positive ways for many, many decades, if not centuries, to come.
Enhanced Value to Your Evergreen® Business Through Effective Social Media Posting
In today's digital age, social media is not simply an option for a company; it’s a strategic imperative. As CEO of BSI Corporate Benefits, LLC (BSI), and as someone who discovered it as an adult, I have had to work to evolve my relationship with social media. One of the first tensions I experienced was how to best manage the intersection of my professional and personal online presence. It’s an ongoing journey, but so far, I have learned those two identities are not, in fact, as separate as I might have imagined. Today, I have landed in a place where social media, primarily LinkedIn for now, has become a productive tool that adds value to my business.
My story is not the story of an expert who has completely mastered social media as a business tool. I am connected with approximately 3,500 individuals on LinkedIn, along with a moderate number of followers and typically average 1,000-5,000 views of my posts, with “likes” typically in the 50 to 200 range, so I consider myself an active user, but by no means an influencer. Nevertheless, I have spent time thinking about how and why social media could be an important tool for me and for BSI, and I have landed in a place where it feels like it is effective and worth my time.
I was taught to practice the Three E’s – Educate, Entertain, Enlighten. I played with that for a while, but to be honest, the only content I created that really felt right was content where I could be my genuine self, no matter which “E” I sought to achieve. So I learned my first lesson of social media: the best and truest content I can offer is content in which I can be my authentic self. For others, it might be different, but for me, this is absolute.
Next, I had to understand how my personal online presence might intersect, if at all, with my professional one. As CEO of BSI, I have determined that the answer to this question varies widely from CEO to CEO, depending on yourself, your company, your relationship with your company, and your values. As an Evergreen leader, the business I have built is so deeply rooted in my values that ultimately, there is no discernible difference between who I am as CEO and who I am as a person. This may be different for leaders of different kinds of companies, but I have to imagine that for most Evergreen leaders, this is true. Second, the type of business you are running surely helps determine the degree to which mixing your personal and professional online identities is effective and appropriate. In businesses where information and expertise are the product, the mandate must clearly be to provide information that your followers can’t get elsewhere. Perhaps a business leader’s personal story has less of a place in that type of company’s feed? But BSI is a people business. We manage corporate benefit packages for our clients, and we are only as good as our team and the relationships we create and maintain with our clients. As CEO, I am a team member and the team’s loudest champion. So yes, my personal voice absolutely has a place in the conversation taking place on social media.
Having settled all that, what do I post on my personal feed? I see it as my duty to use my platform to tell BSI's story and promote the principles and pillars that align with our organization's values. This includes championing the importance of placing people at the center of the business and being a force for good in our community. A significant aspect of my LinkedIn activity, therefore, revolves around celebrating individuals, milestones, and community initiatives within BSI. I believe in creating a workplace where employees are not only seen and heard but also recognized and celebrated for their achievements. Making this part of my own personal story boosts morale within the company and communicates to the outside world the degree to which BSI values its people.
Early on, I had some hesitations about celebrating my excellent team so publicly. Wasn’t that just inviting the competition to come and try to steal them away? I have come to realize, however, that in today's digital landscape, talented individuals are sought after by recruiters every day. If our fantastic team members want a new opportunity, they won’t have any trouble finding it. But by acknowledging and promoting their successes, I hope to reinforce a sense of belonging within BSI and communicate how much they are valued, so they don’t want to leave. Sharing how well we regard our team also communicates to the world that BSI is a great place to work and can help attract top talent to the company.
Looking beyond the team, I have come to understand that social media can be a fantastic tool for community building. I understand that while there are various types of users on social media, forming connections, even with those who may not be actively participating, can have a profound impact. My active engagement on LinkedIn has helped me establish meaningful relationships with professionals I would not otherwise have met, especially those within my industry and within Tugboat Institute®’s membership. Growing my network in this way reinforces a sense of community that extends beyond online interactions. When I arrive at a Tugboat experience, for example, and meet some of my peers for the first time in person, I already have a fairly strong sense of who they are and what they value, so we can skip over the formalities and introductions and make the most of the limited time we have together.
Finally, my journey on social media includes the pursuit of thought leadership. I know how much wisdom I encounter on the feeds of people I know and respect, and I aim to give back. My goal is to contribute meaningfully to the broader conversation within our industry and community. I used to suffer from some imposter syndrome when it came to seeing myself as a thought leader, but now I understand that being a thought leader isn’t about immediate perfection as much as a consistent commitment to sharing valuable ideas.
As for my efforts on social media – primarily on LinkedIn – and how much value they have added to BSI, this is also a work in progress. We are not yet experts on SEO and using our data to optimize our impact through this channel. However, our marketing team does track various metrics related to our social media efforts, including follower growth, engagement, and activity compared to competitors. By analyzing these metrics, we can begin to gauge the impact of our social media strategy. We have seen improvements over time! Additionally, our social media presence has led to warmer leads and prospects who are already familiar with BSI's values and culture. This means that initial outreach becomes more of a conversation about shared values and goals rather than a cold sales pitch. This gives us a clear strategic advantage and improves the experience and confidence of potential clients. As a result, we are more likely to win their business, and they feel a sense of pride being associated with a company that has a clear grounding in purpose and stands as a force for good in the community.
As my social media journey continues, I remain dedicated to my goals of celebrating our team, nurturing a positive company culture, and promoting BSI's purpose with Evergreen content. Our success thus far underscores the importance of authenticity, community engagement, and purposeful personal branding in not only enhancing a company's brand, but also by fostering a thriving organizational culture.
Taking Paired Programming to the Next Level
In the realm of software development, practices that foster collaboration, creativity, and code excellence are worth their weight in gold. One such practice, paired programming, has emerged as a transformative approach. Paired programming refers to a style of software development where two programmers share a single computer and develop together. It is not widespread in the programming industry, but it has started to catch on and become more common. At Menlo Innovations, we have not only embraced it, but elevated it to touch most aspects of our practice, our culture, and our thinking.
The roots of paired programming at Menlo Innovations trace back to my early career as a programmer, right out of college and then graduate school. In my early jobs, I loved the mental challenge of programming, but I found that I kept falling off cliffs in my projects. The teams I was part of kept missing deadlines and delivering poor quality, and the only ones who could fix the inevitable bugs were the programmers who originally wrote the problem code. This led to long nights for many of us. I became concerned that perhaps I wasn’t cut out for this profession. I decided there was something fundamentally wrong with the way the work was organized and I became determined to find a better way. I started reading books on systems thinking and organizational design.
Eventually, I came across a book called Extreme Programming Explained, by Kent Beck. He was a programmer who had faced similar challenges as me, and so he set out on a journey to try to understand why. He realized that in the most crucial moments in his work, which also stood out as some of the best, he often did something unusual – he called over another programmer to watch him work and help him talk through his process, to ensure he was avoiding mistakes. As programmers, we’ve all had those experiences here and there, but it’s not the norm. His idea was, if collaboration like that works well in moments of stress and high pressure, what if we worked that way all the time? The idea of paired programming was born.
At that point, in about 1999 or 2000, I wasn’t sure if this was just a theory or if anyone had started to practice it, but I can tell you that since that day, the teams I have led have practiced it continuously.
Outside of my personal fulfillment issues, what other problems did this solve? For one, it solved the Tower of Knowledge problem. When one person is writing code, no one else knows what they are doing or how they have worked their way through the build. If they are great, they might be a hero programmer, but this is impossible to scale. This often leads to bottlenecks, communication breakdowns, and limited knowledge sharing, as well as tired programmers pushing through a project, even if they are too exhausted to do their best work. This model hinders both individual growth and project outcomes.
Shifting to paired programming helped with all of the above. It has allowed us to scale, to produce more consistently good work, to innovate faster and more creatively, and to enjoy happier, more fulfilled employees.
In 2001, Menlo officially adopted paired programming as a core practice, transforming our landscape. Thanks to Beck’s work, paired programming is not unknown in our industry, but we have taken it to a new level. We pair programmers up every week, and then at the end of the week, we switch the pairs. Each person from the first week’s pairing has to bring their new partner up to speed on the project, or be brought up to speed, and thus the tower of knowledge is shattered. As they create together, they naturally share ideas and write different – and better– code than either one would have written alone. And one of them can go on vacation without causing the whole project to shut down!
Because we are an Evergreen® company, we are equally interested in workplace culture and the employee experience. The impact of our paired work has happily extended far beyond its initial anticipated benefits. Teams working in pairs naturally cultivated mentorship dynamics, with senior developers guiding their junior counterparts. The continuous exchange of ideas sparked innovative solutions that solo work might not have uncovered.
Beyond programming, we have found that paired work is effective at nearly all levels within the company. Our tech people and our quality assurance people all work in pairs. Project managers are a little more loosely coupled, but they do work together. And then in areas like payroll, accounting, and tax preparation, we use pairing strategically, rather than every minute of every day. This extends into leadership; my co-Founder James and I are CEO and COO and we are absolutely paired. We sit next to each other every day, right in the same room as everyone else, and the team expects to see that from us. It’s just who we are at Menlo.
The company's office space itself reflects our ethos. With no cubicles and an open workspace design, developers sit side by side, working on a single screen. This encourages constant interaction, the sharing of insights, and immediate problem-solving.
Pairing has worked so well and become so fundamental to who we are that we have extended the practice into the recruiting and interviewing processes. Prospective employees are paired during interviews, working together on tasks together. We watch them work together and then switch the pairs up every 20 minutes. We instruct them that their job is to ensure that their partner gets a next interview. It’s unusual, and some people don’t like it; this culture is not for everyone. But we find out right away, as this practice provides firsthand experience of Menlo's collaborative environment and ensures that new hires are being taught the company's values from day one.
As technology continues to evolve, and as new methodologies emerge, one lesson remains clear: the greatest solutions often arise when brilliant minds come together, bridging gaps, and creating pathways to success. Menlo's journey with paired programming is a wonderful example of this, reminding us that the future of development is collaborative, innovative, and unlimited in its potential.
Uniting in Evergreen Values
Dear Friend of Tugboat Institute®,
Coming off several very difficult years filled with unexpected challenges and unforeseeable obstacles post-COVID, our members largely saw a more predictable business environment in 2023. Supply chain woes improved, hiring, while still challenging, became possible again in many industries, and inflation has started to cool. Not all businesses weathered this chaos as well as Evergreen® businesses; because of our discipline and long-term mindset, most of our members not only survived the recent wild ride, but in most cases, capitalized on opportunities it presented. It was a year that confirmed the strong position of the Evergreen company in an ever-changing world.
Outside of the business world, on the other hand, 2023 saw a rise in conflict and discord worldwide. From the tense national political climate to the terrible, tragic conflicts overseas, the things that separate us can often overshadow those that unite us, as Americans and as humans. This is a terrible shame.
Here at Tugboat Institute, we are of course neither unaware of nor indifferent to this reality. It affects us, it affects our members, and it is devastatingly sad. As an organization, we firmly condemn violence, hate, terrorism, and prejudice in all forms. However, in the face of all this distress and conflict, and heading into another tough presidential election year in 2024, we have taken the opportunity to re-examine and update our Member Pledge. Among other things, it includes a commitment to refraining from introducing contentious political topics into our community that could polarize our members. We are not putting our heads in the sand. Rather, we are re-iterating our stance, established at our founding ten years ago, to support each and every one of our members in their Evergreen company journeys, and focus on what unites us, which far outweighs whatever may divide us.
At the end of 2023, our membership includes 265 Evergreen companies, spans 25 major industries, draws from Mexico, Canada, and 36 states in the US, includes a variety of ownership structures, and includes businesses with revenues from $6M to $26B. This represents an incredible range of companies. How do we find strength and common cause amid such a range?
First of all, despite these differences, Tugboat members all share the burden and privilege of leadership. They share the responsibility of stewarding, building, protecting, and growing an organization on which many others depend. As such, they can find and have found myriad ways to learn from and support each other. I have sat at dinner at one of our events and participated in a conversation between a second-generation leader of a well-established company and a founder struggling to make the leap across no-man’s land and to imagine how their company makes it from ten years to 100. Not only did the former have helpful and relevant advice for the latter in that moment, but they also made the commitment to stay in touch and engage in conversation on an ongoing basis, to ensure that the founder had the support they needed to persevere. I have watched a group of members from completely different industries who simply happen to live in the same geographical area, greet their forum-mates at an event and reference the personal and professional challenges they have helped each other face and surmount. And I have hosted Tugboat Seminars and Tugboat Talks where members at one stage of their professional careers have shared invaluable advice, perspective, and wisdom with their peers who, no matter where they are in their own leadership journey, can find something to take away and bring back to their companies and lives.
Secondly, beyond the shared leadership that unites our members, we are inextricably and powerfully connected through our shared belief in the Evergreen 7Ps® principles. Evergreen leaders don’t think like other leaders, who might be building toward a quick exit or trying to maximize growth at all costs, to make the quarter, or to achieve an IPO. Evergreen leaders share a long-term mindset, they share a deep belief in purpose, and they share the conviction that the best path to being successful in business is by treating people well and focusing on doing the right thing today and in the future. The profits that follow, and that are of course very important, are the powerful tool through which they can continue to effect change and increase their positive impact on the world. Shareholder wealth generation is not the ultimate goal, but rather a natural byproduct of the long-term compounding of retained capital in the business.
Among our members, we are privileged to include men and women of a variety of races and religions, with a variety of educational and cultural backgrounds, and with life experiences that vary in profound and important ways. Yet we have never for a second seen this variety as anything but an strength. By committing to keeping divisive topics out of Tugboat, we are not turning a blind eye. Tugboat is a community that is grounded in trust, in our shared Evergreen company values, in our shared humanity, and in our shared belief that we have much more in common than not. What makes us special is our ability to share, listen, and learn from each other with authentic curiosity and without judgment, which takes intentional practice. We recognize that good lives inside each of us, and that when we help each other make our Evergreen companies more mature and stronger, it benefits all of the employees, customers, suppliers, families, owners, and communities touched by our peers and us.
Thank you for supporting this incredible, trusted community, and I wish you, and our world, peace and prosperity in 2024.
Warmly,
Dave Whorton
CEO & Founder of Tugboat Institute
Navigating the Regulatory Landscape
California stands as both a land of opportunity and a labyrinth of regulations. Companies operating within the state must grapple with an intricate web of rules governing everything from labor practices to environmental standards. Betts Company has existed in California since 1868, when my great-great-great-grandfather, William Betts, founded the company in San Francisco. Today, the company has diversified and grown a great deal. Still based in California, we compete against companies all over the country, many of whom exist in an environment that is far less regulated than ours. Yet we are an industry leader.
Labor laws in California are far more stringent than most of the country. While labor laws were initially intended to protect employees, California’s current labor laws pose significant hurdles to businesses statewide. The Private Attorneys General Act (PAGA) is a good example of this. PAGA authorizes employees to file civil lawsuits on behalf of not just themselves, but also on the behalf of their coworkers for State of California Labor Code violations which penalizes the employer. The main problem with laws like these is that they assume ill intent on the part of employers. They are susceptible to abuse and can become punitively expensive for businesses across industries. Further, they shift and evolve frequently, which requires constant attention and policy adjustments on the employer’s side, which is also expensive. Navigating complex labor laws, ensuring compliance with meal and rest breaks, accurate pay stubs, and addressing new mandates like California's paid sick leave are daily concerns.
In addition to labor laws and regulations, California is among the most regulated states when it comes to environmental issues, and specifically, emissions. Here again the initial intention was laudable: to ensure that we respect and protect our natural environment. One example is the recent regulations created by California Air Resource Board (CARB) that are affecting the heavy-duty truck industry. But since California is often the first to mandate certain reforms and new policies, it is up to the businesses in the state to scramble to adjust to them continually.
How do we, at Betts, manage to thrive and remain competitive in such an environment? In several ways. First, we are a Certified Evergreen® company, and we believe in putting People First. As a baseline, therefore, we do a great deal to ensure that our employees are happy, fulfilled, and treated fairly, thus minimizing the cost of frivolous lawsuits brought through PAGA and similar regulations.
Second, we work cooperatively with many businesses in our industry and region to create and support systems and organizations that protect the rights of employees, but without putting the burden on employers. We founded, for example, the San Joaquin Valley Manufacturing Alliance, which aims to support the Valley’s $19.3B manufacturing industry by helping develop and train the workforce. We are also part of an organization called Heartland Compass, which provides resources for employees of employer partners. Heartland can help employees with all sorts of problems, including finding resources to pay for car repairs so they can get to work, finding the right advocates to start the process of seeking US citizenship, and securing a case manager and hospice care for an ailing parent. In this way, we are helping create a landscape where employees do have access to support and resources, making them less vulnerable and better able to stand on their own. In addition, the collective efforts of our business and our many co-collaborators stand as evidence that many businesses do care about employees and are willing to prioritize their safety, care, and wellbeing. We are working to redefine business as one of the good guys, not the villain.
A third and significant part of our work to improve the regulatory landscape is our contribution to a great many efforts to proactively advocate for Common Sense regulations and politics. My father, who is still Chairman of Betts, has taken on the role of primary steward and advocate for initiatives like PAGA reform and career tech education in California. Under his leadership, Betts Company has joined a broader coalition called the New California Coalition, representing businesses from various regions and industries. This coalition is united in its goal to create a common voice for businesses statewide, bridging the gap between government policymakers and localized businesses. The initiative aims to impact decision-makers at the state level and bring clarity to the regulatory challenges faced by companies of all sizes. The bottom line is that California needs good businesses, and therefore it is in everyone’s best interest to promote and enact reasonable and manageable regulations that will protect employees and the environment without driving companies out of state.
Finally, the most significant and fundamental way Betts remains competitive on the national stage despite the challenges imposed by the regulatory environment is by being excellent at what we do. We strive to outperform our competitors by offering superior quality and service. This shows up in several ways, starting with our commitment to investing in our equipment and technology. Betts Company continuously invests in cutting-edge equipment, improving efficiency and quality and allowing us to offer better products to our customers. We are also committed to innovation; we actively engage with customers to design and engineer solutions tailored to their needs. This sets us apart from competitors who may focus solely on production. We have historically and continue to maintain rigorous quality assurance standards, ensuring our products are top-notch and reliable, fostering customer trust. We’ve built a reputation for quality and reliability over the 155 years since our founding. And finally, while we compete nationally, Betts recognizes the importance of understanding local markets and tailoring our offerings accordingly.
As a final added bonus, the multi-generational nature of Betts Company plays a significant role in our success. As President, I oversee the day-to-day operations and the pursuit of excellence in manufacturing. My father, Mike Betts, with his wealth of experience and dedication to advocacy, spearheads the company's engagement with government and regulatory agencies. Having someone with such deep experience and knowledge of the industry landscape who can devote his time to this effort is an enormous advantage for us. In order to have similar success, another company might have to hire someone solely devoted to this effort, which would of course mean increased cost to and burden on the company.
At Betts, we remain committed to advocacy, innovation, and customer-centric excellence. We do not hold these values because of the regulatory landscape, but they are at the top of the list of reasons we succeed despite the often-challenging environment. Through collaboration with other businesses and organizations, and our deep commitment to being a Certified Evergreen company, Betts Company continues to work towards redefining business as a force for good and towards shaping a more positive business landscape, all while ensuring our competitive edge. We are proud of our multi-generational leadership as it provides a strong foundation for our ongoing success and commitment to positive change.
Diversifying Your Team Starts with Culture
In the world of manufacturing, achieving or even approaching gender balance has historically been challenging. The physical work that it requires was once considered more appropriate for men, and though we now know that is not the case, it’s been a hard stereotype to dismantle. However, in recent years, here at Cambridge Air Solutions, we have managed to defy the odds and create a more balanced workforce. It happened partially on purpose and partially by accident, but as we look back and study the changes we’ve seen in recent years, we are now taking steps to intentionally preserve our progress. Above all else, we’ve learned that our success on this front is rooted in a deeply ingrained culture of respect, dignity, and inclusivity.
Cambridge Air Solutions is a purpose-driven, family-owned Evergreen® business. As the second-generation CEO of Cambridge, my personal passion is to restore glory and dignity in manufacturing. I believe deeply in that goal, but it’s lofty and the initial steps toward making it a reality are not necessarily obvious. Or they weren’t to me.
I started with the people at Cambridge and have spent the last 20 years or so, and especially in the decade since I became CEO, focused on helping us all get clearer about why we are in business; we are trying to do manufacturing a different way. Our core values are unconditional love with high expectations, care, courage, and respect. Over time, these have helped us develop a strong culture where the hard work of every single team member is honored and celebrated. It’s important to us that every person at Cambridge goes home winning at the end of every day, knowing that their work matters. Our focused insistence on this kind of relationship with our team and with the work they do has, over time, created a supportive, respectful, and positive workplace.
Although it seems obvious that a culture built on respect should make room for all sorts of people, we were not overtly focused on diversifying our workforce. However, during the pandemic, our VP of Human Resources, Meg Brown, noticed a change. Like the rest of our industry, we hovered around 5-7% female on our team. But during Covid, women started applying for positions ¬– not just on the office side, where the previous 5-7% sat, but also in manufacturing. All of a sudden, we were seeing around 15% women, more than double what it had been. Wanting to keep on this path, we mused about why this was happening and what was motivating these women to apply, and then decided, “We should probably ask them!”
In conversations with these new recruits, it became clear that the company's culture played a pivotal role. Here are some of the things they told us; “It just felt really welcoming,” “I’ve never really worked with tools, but none of the men around me treated me like I couldn’t. They believed I could.” “Because no one treated me like I was stupid, I started to ask questions, and I learned, and I started to feel capable.” As we listened to them, it struck us: this was the glory and dignity we had been working on for 20 years!
Since then, we have become much more intentional about supporting this evolution. We joined Women in Manufacturing (WIM) about nine months ago and recently hosted a tour for our local chapter. Wrapping up the tour was a panel of female Cambridge employees in front of a screen with their titles: Welder, Maintenance Tech, and Engineer. We inevitably got to the question: “Is it hard working here surrounded by so many men?” Our team members simply replied, “It’s not like that here.” It was powerful.
We experienced a moment recently that exemplifies the journey we’ve been on. We have daily rhythms, where the company goes through the numbers: revenue, safety, quality, delivery, etc. We also leave space for grateful appreciation. One of our wonderful female employees, Maddie, the abovementioned Maintenance Tech on our WIM tour, was moving to North Carolina and it was her last day. When it came time for grateful appreciation, a string of 15 or so people got up and expressed their appreciation for Maddie. They spoke of her great attitude, her energy, how she made every day fun for everyone. One of the older men who runs a punch machine got up and took the microphone. There were literally tears in his eyes and all he could say was, “Thank you.” Everybody lost it then, including Maddie. She got up to speak and said, through tears, “I was not this way at my old job. I was a real jerk.” In that moment, she gave credit to our culture, and our culture gave credit to her. It was an unforgettable day.
Cambridge's success in increasing gender diversity only represents a start, but we are proud of this progress. I attribute it to our strong people-first culture of dignity and respect. We know that that culture trumps strategy, and our experience with gender inclusivity stands as strong proof of that. We prioritize treating all employees as individuals and respecting their unique abilities, regardless of their gender.
This commitment to fostering a healthy and supportive culture extends beyond gender diversity. Following the same core beliefs, we have undertaken another new initiative – we are partnering with organizations like Boone Center Inc. (BCI) to embrace neurodiversity in our talent pool. As part of their program to integrate adults with disabilities into a work program, BCI operates the Skills Center, offering job training and placement services. These employees receive the same pay and respect as their non-neurodiverse colleagues. Our culture of respect and acceptance extends to these individuals, creating a harmonious and inclusive work environment.
By creating a workplace where everyone feels welcomed, included, and valued at Cambridge, we are working to continue our journey to improve our healthy culture. Attracting talented people from diverse backgrounds, experiences, communities, and groups helps us continue to live into our purpose of enriching lives. We are acting intentionally to evaluate structures, systems and methods so that we may continue to attract a diverse and talented workforce that will support our highest-level purpose – enriching lives.
Thriving as a Non-Family CEO in a Family-Owned Business
I am the non-family CEO of Victaulic, a 104-year-old family-owned company. I’ve been at the company for 14 years and have been CEO for almost three years. My initial decision to join Victaulic was grounded in our shared values and Evergreen® perspective on business, and my experience leading the company has been wonderful for largely the same reasons. I am often asked what it’s like to be a non-family CEO of a multi-generational family company, so I have spent some time thinking it through. I believe our success rests on a few key, foundational factors which are specific to Victaulic.
First, Victaulic is unique in that it has never had a family member working within its ranks. It was decreed from the beginning that this would never happen. Our legacy began with our first patent in 1919 when two men, Lt. Ernest Tribe, a British Royal Engineer, and Dr. Henry Selby Hele-Shaw, an eminent research engineer, imagined a solution to move fuel to the troops on the front line. This innovative solution to swiftly and effectively connect pipes led to the company's inception. The “victory joint,” so named because of its potential use by the British soldiers during wartime, was quickly adopted and early applications were used in the oil and water markets outside of military applications. At the end of the war, Mr. Frederick Bedford, who was working as an executive at Standard Oil, saw the value of this invention and proposed to his boss, Nelson Rockefeller, that they launch a business manufacturing and selling the connectors. Rockefeller was not interested, but he gave Bedford the green light to pursue the idea as an investor, provided he agreed to one condition: no Bedford family member should ever be employed by the company. In 1925, Bedford founded Victaulic Company of America with James H. Hayes serving as chairman and president.
This prohibition of family members ever working in the company removed one potential challenge for a non-family CEO at Victaulic, since all CEOs would always be non-family. There is not and will never be a risk of family dynamics that get in the way of a CEOs ability to run the company effectively.
Fast forward to the present, Victaulic has emerged as a global leader in pipe-joining solutions, with a prominent presence in iconic structures and industrial sites worldwide. Victaulic solutions are installed in ten of the world’s tallest buildings, eight of the world’s deepest mines, across dozens of Olympic stadiums and sports facilities, and in landmarks such as the Hoover Dam, the Louvre Museum in Paris, and Wimbledon Center Court. Even if you have never heard of us, the chances that you are sitting in a building that contains a Victaulic system right now are high. As the company has grown and thrived, so has the Bedford family. A second reason I have had such a positive experience working in this company is the family itself.
The family owners' commitment to and passion for Victaulic are profound. Though they are not actively involved in day-to-day operations, their engagement in board meetings and participation in significant decisions underscore their dedication to the company's growth and well-being. There is a strong ethos of caring for and remaining connected to the company that dates back to the founder, who took great care to educate his family (our current owners) about Victaulic. Family members regularly visit Victaulic facilities and construction jobsites when they travel, and they feel a strong sense of pride in and connectedness to the company. As a result, they see Victaulic as far more than a dividend check, but an extension of their family, and are invested in its success and long-term growth. They are supportive of leadership, which they know will never be their job, and they are eager to ensure that their influence is positive and does not stand as an obstacle to progress and success.
Working with such a family has been a great pleasure; my relationship with the board is positive, productive, and respectful. Maintaining open lines of communication, I regularly share monthly results with the owners and seek their guidance on strategic matters. This mutual trust has fostered a collaborative and productive relationship, enabling us to face challenges and seize opportunities together.
The third and perhaps most important reason my experience at Victaulic has been so overwhelmingly positive has, again, to do with the family owners. One of the reasons I decided to leave a job and a company I loved and join Victaulic was their Evergreen mindset, although we didn’t have the language to call it that at the time. The focus on constant evolution rather than radical changes, long-term and patient strategy, and positive impact in the community and the world resonated with my professional inclinations. This mindset is integral to our operations and has been a driving force behind our sustained growth and success. Our shared core values prioritize people and communities, transcending mere profit-seeking objectives.
Additionally, our owners have been diligent and steadfast in engaging with our workforce of talented associates. They are motivated by the belief that by building employee relationships and taking care of People First, our employees will in turn take care of our customers, suppliers, partners, communities, and their families. This Evergreen value is shown time and again to all of our employees regardless of their level in the organization. From attending holiday functions and business planning meetings to welcoming new employees when mergers are completed and walking the operations/manufacturing floor during COVID, our owners make it a point to be active and visible. They know the best business decisions are never solely about strategy, sales or marketing. At least not directly. They are always people decisions. Those we hire, and how we manage, engage, and develop our employees have far greater impacts on our business results than the things we usually think of as driving success.
The success of leading a family-owned company as a non-family CEO lies in the alignment of values. In my unique case, I will never have to contend with a potential family member who might seek to take the reins. That simplifies things, but really, if you and the family owners share a similar value set, the rest falls into place. Open communication, a respectful commitment to staying in our lanes, and a shared, Evergreen mindset are the ingredients that can make any non-family CEO successful in leadership of a multi-generational family business. If you are looking at a potential opportunity and have concerns about how it might work, I suggest you start with these foundational factors.
Uniting Strengths: Collaborative Innovation for Growth
As an Evergreen® leader, I believe deeply in leading a People First organization. As part of that belief, I understand the value of relationships. Taking the time to establish trust and communication – with colleagues, customers, suppliers, and community members – unlocks the doors for collaboration, and collaboration is one of the most effective paths I know to innovation. As the third-generation leader of Crescent Parts & Equipment (CPE), some of the relationships I have the honor of maintaining exist not simply between individuals, but between the company my grandfather founded and people in his sphere who have been friends for more than a generation.
CPE is an HVACR (heating, ventilation, air conditioning, and refrigeration) parts and equipment wholesale distributor in Missouri, Illinois, and Iowa. The nature of our business means that we often partner with service technicians, builders, and other professionals, so collaboration is necessary and frequent. Some of our relationships, however, date back farther and are stronger than others. Hoffmann Brothers is a great example. They are a prominent HVAC service provider based in St. Louis, and we have been their primary equipment supplier for quite some time. Their CEO is also a fellow member of Tugboat Institute®! Hoffmann Brothers is one of our largest accounts and their family and ours have been friends for over a generation. I spend a lot of time outside work with Robert Hoffmann and his sons Chris and Joe, who are the current CEO and GM-St Louis Operations. I have known Chris and Joe since they were kids.
Our business with Hoffmann Brothers happens in two primary ways. Let’s say you wake up in the morning and your house is too hot or too cold. You call Hoffmann Brothers, or a similar company. They come and evaluate the situation, and they either need to replace an old part with a new one, or they advise you that the unit is too old to fix, and you need to replace it entirely. Either way, they come to us for the part or new unit.
A few years ago, I was out on a hunting trip with Robert, Chris, and Joe. In the evening, after a long day in the field, we started talking shop. We saw some inherent inefficiencies in the process we were using, and we knew that if we could figure out how to enhance our respective positions in the marketplace, we would all win, so we started brainstorming ways to improve. We hit on the idea that if we could figure out how to handle the product less, we would both see improvements.
When we got home, I reached out to a professor who is a supply chain optimization expert from the University of Missouri-St. Louis, with whom we had worked before. The collaboration was a collective effort, with Crescent and Hoffmann Brothers working closely together throughout the process. Ultimately, we designed our solution together. The vision was simple yet powerful: a dedicated, shared space inside of a Hoffmann Brothers' location, solely dedicated to handling their HVAC requirements.
Our primary goal was to streamline processes, reduce handling costs, and optimize inventory management. We knew that our expertise in lean principles and supply chain optimization could be instrumental in achieving this vision. In April 2022, we officially launched the collaboration. We stationed two Crescent employees within a Hoffmann Brothers' building, providing easy access to the parts and equipment needed for daily jobs. The Crescent section of the approximately 18,000 square foot building occupies about 2,400 square feet, so it’s a significant footprint. Every afternoon, our employees prepare the materials for the next day, ensuring that Hoffmann Brothers' technicians have everything they need when they arrive in the morning. By about 3pm, our team starts packaging and staging the materials that each Hoffmann Brothers team will need for the next day – air conditioners, furnaces, parts, and components. They set them in the area dedicated to each team, so when the Hoffmann Brothers employees show up for work at 6:30 or 7am, they just grab their pallets and go.
The most significant and immediate benefit of the collaboration has been the improved customer service experienced by Hoffmann Brothers' clients. With our dedicated employees on-site, the response time for obtaining parts and equipment has been significantly reduced. This streamlined process results in faster turnaround times for repairs and installations, ultimately leading to increased customer satisfaction. By reducing the distance and time involved in sourcing parts and equipment, we made the entire process more efficient. This approach eliminated waste and redundancies, making the overall system leaner and more cost-effective for both our companies.
The collaboration and subsequent innovation were built on a foundation of trust and friendship between Crescent and Hoffmann Brothers. The fact that we are both Evergreen companies is an easy way to articulate what really underpins the success of our partnership: a shared set of values, similar long-term mindsets, and a deep commitment to improving the experience of our employees, customers, and partners.
As the President of Crescent, I am proud of the steps we have taken to foster collaboration and innovation. The success of this partnership has taught me valuable lessons about the power of trust, lean principles, and customer-centricity. Moving forward, I am excited to build on this experience and continue exploring new ways to enhance our relationships with customers and drive positive change within our industry.
Create a Space for Your Team and They Will Come!
At The Motz Group, like so many of you, post-pandemic we found ourselves wrestling with the challenge of many employees choosing to work remotely or on a hybrid model. And like many of you, we discovered that there is a significant cost to culture when the team is not together. We are perhaps unique in that, even before 2020, our team was fragmented, and therefore we were already searching for a solution to this problem when the pandemic hit. This turned out to be a great advantage as we sought to solve this challenge.
We are a sport field construction company, and we also provide products that go into synthetic turf sport fields and landscape applications. Our workforce numbers about 120, half of whom work out of a Cincinnati facility. The rest are either field-based sales reps or part of our field installation crews. We have experienced significant, steady growth over time, and as we grew, we added new space to our headquarters vertically, creating a series of different floors with different offices and different micro-cultures. This on top of the fact that so many of our employees are not office-based at all led us to prioritize finding and creating a new space where as much of our team as possible could be together. Moving into 2020, we had made a few moves to this end, including flattening the organizational structure and starting a search for a new space to allow for more collaboration. We were still talking about future real estate options when everything came to a halt.
The spring of 2020 saw everyone leave the office and go home, but as we moved into summer, we started to get back to work. Like everywhere, people who work in offices were largely working from home, but there was enough activity that we felt emboldened to make a move some may have seen as risky; in the face of all the uncertainty, recognizing that collaboration and teamwork were pivotal to our success, we decided to forge ahead with our plan to buy and start work on our new space.
Through the rest of 2020 and into 2021, we were deep in the design process for the new space. In the meantime, as work picked back up, we welcomed everyone back to the office, but we never forced it. Our mantra was always ‘office first, with flexibility.’ If you were better that day to work at home, do it. If you felt you could be more efficient and highly productive by being remote, do it. But we knew that for some things, like one-to-ones, team meetings, cross-departmental meetings, and huddles, something was lost when we were not all present. There we were, preparing to invest enormous time, effort, and money into this new space and we asked ourselves, “Are they ever coming back?”
As we considered this dilemma, it became clear that if we wanted everybody back, we had to earn it. We had to create an environment where people wanted to be there, where they wanted to fill the seats, to collaborate, to see their buddy. We realized that our new space would either be the key to the solution or, if we did it wrong, make our remote situation permanent. We set to work with this goal in mind.
Ultimately, we looked at this process as a great opportunity to declare our identity as an Evergreen®, People First company and to separate who we are in this community. As an employer of choice, you’ve got to earn people’s time; they have choices now. The design process was really cool; we brought in not just the folks that were actually going to inhabit the office on a daily basis, but also our field personnel, and we did collaborative brainstorming sessions of what the space could be.
In the end, the transformation of our space was driven not simply by our desire to return to the office, but also to create a workspace that aligned with our values. The result was a vibrant hub that symbolizes humility, inclusivity, and renewal. The architecture combines elements of concrete, steel, glass, water, and fire. This is a place where employees from all walks of life can come together – from those in collared shirts to those with mud on their boots. And for those stationed in a different city, we invested in technology to ensure that remote employees could connect seamlessly, which further fostered a sense of inclusivity, even for those who could not be physically present. As people started to return to our new space, we reinstated practices like monthly birthday lunches, happy hours, and quarterly in-person meetings. We did everything we could to make the office a place where our teams felt comfortable, inspired, connected, and at home. As an employee-owned company, we strove to construct a building that truly belonged to the team.
The transition was not just about the physical space; it was also a pivotal moment in Motz’s succession story. Joe Motz, our Founder, returned from sabbatical right at the start of the pandemic and we began the gradual process of my transition to CEO. In 2020, he named me President and I took all his direct reports, but he was still heavily involved with running the business. Then, through the building project, for which we broke ground in 2022, Joe detached from strategic touchpoints and immersed himself in physically building and renewing the property, to the point of literally jumping onto a bulldozer and doing site work himself. In a symbolic move, we built the new building without an office for Joe in it; he spent those years building something he ultimately would not have a home in. However, his presence is strongly exhibited throughout the building, inside and out. From hand-built wooden features, a koi pond for calmness, and beautiful landscaping, his legacy will stand strong and forever be an inspiration to our current and future team. Thanks to this, his transition to Founder felt natural and complete.
Did it work? Have people come back to the office? I don't keep stats on it, but overwhelmingly, people are here. We don't have any mandates around it; we still don’t say you have to be here a certain number of days. It's still the same - flexible. But people are coming in to take part in the experience. Our field crews come in in the morning for coffee, we have a hoteling space for our salespeople when they are here, and we have spaces for project management teams to work together. They walk in and they think, "I helped envision this, and I helped to design it. This is my place."
The space we created has allowed for more advantages than simply bringing our team back together. We have opened our space for our customers to use for meetings and gatherings. Recently, over 30 athletic directors that make up the Southwest Ohio Athletic Directors Association (SWOADA) hosted a meeting at Motz. Truly a win-win, they get to have a productive work session in a collaborative, inspiring environment and we get to deepen our relationships with our valued customers. Another is the adjacent property we gifted – a brand-new synthetic turf field to a local community church. Motz’s Purpose is Moving People to Better Lives. In addition to showcasing our most recent technologies right outside our front door, this means that now we can look out the windows every day and see our purpose in action - 100 children playing on the field.
The lesson we see in this story is that the best way we found to bring our team back together in person was to create a space that exemplified and embodied our values. We built a space that invites a culture that people want to be part of. The rest is falling into place – our place.
Tugboat Institute @Meijer: Persist with Purpose and Create Something Extraordinary
While not well known outside of the Midwest, Meijer is a remarkable Evergreen® company founded by Hendrick Meijer and his son Fred Meijer 90 years ago. If the Meijer family wasn’t so humble, many more would know about it beyond the states in which it operates and in which Hendrick and Fred introduced the one-shop-stop superstore concept in 1962.
The purpose of Meijer is “Enriching Lives in the Communities We Serve.” Last week at Tugboat Institute® @Meijer, Tugboat Institute members were able to see how this Purpose comes to life. CEO Rick Keyes and his outstanding executive team welcomed us to Grand Rapids and inspired us to keep believing in the power of the Evergreen company to grow from modest beginnings and make a staggeringly positive impact on its employees, customers, suppliers, and communities over decades. We were treated to three inspiring and interesting days of learning, connection, and celebration.
In 1934, Dutch immigrant Hendrick Meijer opened the first Meijer grocery store as a way to utilize a building he owned for his barbershop. He passed leadership to his son Fred, who started in the business at the age of 10, and who grew the business into one of the largest and most influential companies in the country.
Rick Keyes is the CEO of Meijer and works with the 3rd generation of Meijer stewards, who serve on the board and remain committed to Meijer’s values and growth. Rick started working at the company 34 years ago as a pharmacist in a store in Columbus, OH, and he quickly fell in love with the complex, energetic, and fast-paced model of the superstore. He moved rapidly into leadership, first in the pharmacy division, and then store management, at the age of 24. He served the company in many leadership roles over the years and was named CEO in 2017.
Under Rick’s leadership, which is characterized by humility, commitment to excellence and the founding values, and a profound desire to perpetuate Meijer’s positive impact in its communities, the company has continued to grow and thrive. Among other notable accomplishments as CEO, Rick has moved the company from a pattern of growth in fits and starts to a more regular cadence of growth, through which they aim to open 5-7 new stores per year, while refreshing every store once a decade.
As is our custom when Tugboat peers gather, we began our week with a celebration. Reconnecting with old friends and to discovering new ones always sets the stage for an energetic and inspiring week. We spent the next few days hearing from Rick, his executive team, Hank Meijer, and Mark Meijer at the impressive Fred Meijer Corporate Office in Grand Rapids. They covered topics ranging from the history of the company, the role of the family in the company today, the many ways Meijer takes care of its team, new innovations in the works in marketing and store experience design, supplier inclusion, pragmatic innovation, and more. We were all struck by the collective generosity and trust that characterizes Tugboat membership as Rick, his team, and the Meijer brothers candidly offered a deep look into the structures and processes that drive their impressive company, as well as the challenges they have faced over the years. Then we had the opportunity to visit one of Meijer’s superstores and see for ourselves how deeply aligned and cohesive the whole team – from executive leadership to store directors to cashiers – is across the organization. The level of excellence, care, and positivity that Rick and his team presented are abundantly evident in every aspect of the stores themselves.
In the evenings, we spent time celebrating in downtown Grand Rapids, and we also had the opportunity to visit the Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park, which stands as the embodiment of the Meijer family’s deep care for and commitment to their community. Fred Meijer had been collecting and warehousing sculptures and when the idea of creating a botanical garden was raised by a local non-profit, they took the opportunity to create something unique for their Grand Rapids community. In addition to beautiful greenhouses attached to the main building which hosts a museum on the site, the 158-acre botanical gardens are home to one of the world’s most important collections of outdoor sculptures, including pieces from Fred and Lena’s personal collection, pieces on loan from other collections, and pieces commissioned for the gardens themselves.
Longtime company and family leader Fred Meijer often repeated his aim to “leave the world in a little better shape than when I entered it.” After our week together in Grand Rapids, we can say with confidence that Fred would be astounded by the extent to which his vision is being fulfilled today. Rick, Meijer family leaders, and the entire Meijer team stand as exemplars of the extent to which an Evergreen company can, if it persists and stay focused on its Purpose and the other Evergreen 7Ps® principles, make a dent in the universe.