Creating an Engaged Board
The roles and responsibilities of an Evergreen company board differ significantly from that of a publicly traded or exit-oriented company board. The dynamics between board, management, owners and family are more nuanced, with board influence varying significantly depending on the governance structure of the particular company. Chip Dickinson, CEO of sixth-generation E. Ritter & Company, has extensive experience with boards of directors and boards of advisers and shared his wisdom at last year’s Tugboat Institute Summit.
In his talk, Dickinson provides a helpful framework for the different types of boards that an Evergreen business can adopt, while explaining why an engaged board of directors is key to a company’s success.
Trident Takeaways
American hero, Tugboat Fellow and business consultant Commander Rorke Denver is back on our stage giving us an update on his new projects and a few more memorable Trident Takeaways. We are grateful for the support Rorke’s shown to our Evergreen community. Most notably, Rorke shares with us what it means to constantly improve your position and reach for an extra inch.
Step One: Know Yourself
“We all look to be something great and leave our mark on this world,” says John Keatley, celebrated Seattle-based portrait photographer. Photography was a side hobby for Keatley until a chance conversation awoke his passion to pursue it professionally. But it hasn’t always been easy. In a field where technical and editorial skills are commonplace, it is difficult to create a voice that is unique to the artist.
In his talk, Keatley shares the importance of truly knowing oneself and being authentic in the work that we produce as the key to lasting success — a guiding message that is relevant to us all irrespective of profession.
Purpose on Purpose
If you’ve ever participated in Warrior Dash or a Firefly Music Festival, you have Joe Reynolds and his team to thank. In 2007, Reynolds started Red Frog Events from his apartment with the goal of delivering amazing experiences to people. While Red Frog does this well, the team is about more than just providing entertainment — it’s a vehicle for making a positive impact on the world. In 2013, Red Frog Events committed to raising $25 million for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, and as of 2017 has already achieved over 50 percent of that goal.
In his inspiring and moving talk, Reynolds shares how his commitment to St. Jude has helped drive his business while inspiring in his employees a larger Purpose.
How High-Performance Leaders Achieve Remarkable Results
W. Grant Gregory is the retired chairman of Deloitte & Touche and founder of DoubleClick. His success long preceded, and continued after, DoubleClick’s sale to Google in 2007, which he attributes to the high-performing teams he assembled and led. But how does one learn to identify talent that will thrive and excel? For Gregory, it meant understanding the key traits of the top performers in that particular role, and being absolutely focused on hiring talent with those traits.
In his Tugboat Institute Summit talk, Gregory describes how Don Clifton, his longtime mentor and the creator of StrengthsFinder, helped him adopt principles of positive psychology and strength-based leadership in the identification and development of talent at scale across large and complex organizations.
Stories of Purpose
Having deep Purpose is the true north of Evergreen CEOs. For them, business is beyond just making money for the founders and owners. Though wealth generation may be a long-term byproduct of one’s success, it’s not the reason for being in Evergreen companies. In this candid video, Tugboat Institute members share their guiding Purpose.
Featuring: Rick Sutton, John Keatley, Jim Creel, Bryan Pape, Jim Milgard
Creating a Healthy, High-Performance Culture
For Robert Glazer, the building blocks of company culture are vision, core values and employee alignment. As founder of Acceleration Partners, a client-focused marketing agency, he emphasizes the importance of hiring the right people, treating them with respect, knowing when to invest in them and being aware of employees who “quit and stay.”
In his talk, Glazer shares how he came to realize the importance of a healthy culture, and key tools he and his team use to bring that culture to life.
Scrappy Stories
Pragmatic Innovation is an essential value of Evergreen companies. In this candid video, members share their stories of the most amazing things they’ve accomplished with very limited resources.
Featuring: Don MacAskill, Will Snook, Wynne Odell, Darcey Croft and Dan Kenary.
Reinventing Radio Flyer
Even a legendary, 100-year-old brand like Radio Flyer — the little red wagon that's become an iconic part of the lives of millions of children — needs to work hard to ensure its continued success. “I knew we had all this great stuff about our brand," says Robert Pasin, Radio Flyer's CEO. “But I soon learned that the company was at kind of a crossroads and we have some problems.”
In his Tugboat Institute Summit talk, Pasin shares the origins of his family business and his desire to continue to build upon his family’s brand while developing a culture that fosters creativity and innovation. It’s the company’s values and mission-driven work environment that help fuel Radio Flyer’s continued growth.
How to Build a Bootstrapped Consumer Business
During the 2008 economic downturn, Stella Ma and her business partner, Amy Norman, created a children’s education subscription business called Little Passports. Her passion to make travel more accessible and affordable to all children has led Ma to achieve a $25 million run-rate business. Her Perseverance these past nine years led to a household brand name that continues to innovate with expanded products including digital animation, books and localized goods. In her talk, Ma reveals the five strategies that have helped her consumer-brand company grow profitably without outside capital. Recently, Little Passports was named one of the top 10 best places to work by the San Francisco Business Times.