A 77 Year-Old Startup
Building a multi-generational business is hard and it is rare. About 13% of U.S. family-owned businesses are passed down successfully to a third generation, while just 3% survive to a fourth generation (Businessweek.com, 2010). Information on successful transitions of fourth-generation family businesses is rare, making it evident that sustaining success across multiple generations is a formidable challenge.
However, there are exceptions. I am President of Capitol City Produce, a fourth-generation family business that has thrived for over seven decades since its founding in 1947, just two years after the end of World War II. How have we managed to beat the odds? In short, through relationships and innovation, and through consistently embodying the spirit of a startup despite our decades-long legacy.
The first and most critical ingredient to our success over the years has been our unwavering commitment to nurturing relationships—with both customers and suppliers. As an Evergreen® business, we have a People First orientation, and this extends beyond our team to all the people in our universe. We exist to serve them, and we are driven by a profound focus on understanding and engaging with them as often as possible. Importantly, this is not just a strategy; when we approach a customer and ask how we can improve their experience, it has to be about them, and it has to be genuine. We interact with our suppliers and customers all the time, traveling around to visit them in person to be sure we have a solid understanding of their experience, their pain points, and what we can do to improve our service to them.
Here is a concrete example of what this looks like. In Louisiana, in early Spring we boil a lot of seafood. It’s a big family and social thing here. It’s also a big deal for our retail supermarket customers to provide all the seasonings for boiling season. We created a new product for boiling season; we took all the produce seasonings that go into a boil, the garlic, onions, lemons, potatoes, etc., and we put it all in one bag and marketed it as a “boiling bag”. Some members of our team were talking to a supermarket customer who loved the idea, but remarked, “I love it, but I don’t know how I am going to display it to my customers.” Our team listened. In Louisiana they have these traditional Cajun boats called pirogues. We found a custom pirogue builder and engaged him to build a miniature, custom pirogue. We presented it to our customer and said it would be great for displaying the boiling bags to his customers. He was stunned. Like many of our customers, he was waiting for the part where we said what we wanted out of the interaction, but it never came. We just did it for him. His comment was simply “Wow, I can’t believe y’all did that”. This is what valuing relationships looks like to us.
With a diverse customer base spanning food service and retail supermarkets, comprising over 3,000 customers, listening and tending to our customers’ needs and wants is a big project, and it is driven by a singular strategy: envisioning the future through their eyes. We want to align with our customers as we build toward the future. What do they value most? What will they need from us? This is where our attention to relationships joins together with our attention to innovation.
In thinking about how to best serve our customers’ ever-evolving needs, we felt that we could adapt in tandem with them, in a harmonized way, if we truly were to understand their perspectives about the future of their business and their future challenges. We wanted information that was unique, deep, proprietary, and attained through trust that would foster a unique candor. To expand the population of perspectives, we reached out to a respected industry peer serving additional markets in Houston, Dallas, and Austin. We collaborated to create a “Customer Insights” dialog questionnaire that was used by both companies to hold discussions with each of our top customers. The “Why” was explained to customers like this; we want to better understand how exceptional supply partners should evolve over the upcoming three-year horizon. We explained that we wanted to understand their specific perspective, so that we could plan to evolve our business with keener insights.
Once we had collected insights from forward-thinking key customers across six major markets, the leadership from Sales, Operations, Finance, and the Executive leadership of both companies met in person to distill the key insights from each customer. The insights were validated through the multi-company and multi-markets approach. This initiative strengthened customer relationships, engaged key sales leadership in learning, developed foresight, changed viewpoints, and influenced the service culture of both companies. A specific insight that stuck was this; “You are an exceptional supply partner because you show that you care more than you should! I feel like when I am talking with your team, they are wearing my company’s shirt.” Three years later, the key insights are still on my office whiteboard.
Another pivotal moment came during a conversation with a leading sports bar and restaurant customer expanding nationally. We had great ideas for new technologies and were considering how we might deliver these technologies to them. We explained what we were thinking, and they replied, “Our future employees are going to want to have everything they need right on their phone. Don’t develop something new and proprietary – just engage with them on their phones.” This insight revolutionized our approach. We shifted our focus to not only developing cutting-edge solutions but also delivering them in a manner that resonated with our customers. One example of a change in path was to text “Where’s My Truck” delivery commitments to our customers vs. requiring a mobile app to be opened (download, login, password, etc.) to get the information.
All of this work and attention has a very simple focus: taking care of people. Our customers and suppliers have a choice. We need to give them a reason to choose to do business with us. We have a saying at CCP – the Wow Zone. It’s from a visual we use to onboard new team members titled “The Depth of Effort for Long-Term Customer Retention.” A certain percentage of our efforts should be expended in creating Wow Zone customer experiences where they are pleasantly surprised by an innovation, an idea, or a solution. That’s where a customer engages with us and the levels of attention and service they receive cause them to say, “Wow. You’ve got to be kidding. You’re willing to do that for me?”
Ultimately, I think a possible reason many multi-generational businesses fail is closely tied to the reason we are able to continue to operate like a start-up, even after 77 years. Companies that manage to be successful for more than one generation can be tempted to slide into ‘complacency mode,' where they sit back to enjoy the success they have achieved. That can be the first step toward the end.
By directing our focus not just on our business today but on what our business will look like in the coming years, we stay on our toes, we stay agile, and we stay energized. Our Evergreen grounding in relationships and focus on Pragmatic Innovation give us the tools to connect the past to the future, and to make our energy actionable. Through a combination of technological innovation and personalized service, we have not only retained existing customers but also expanded our market presence significantly. Furthermore, our ability to adapt and respond promptly to customer needs, as quickly as a one-minute response time for chats, has been a key differentiator. It distinguishes us from competitors and solidifies our reputation as a partner that is reliable, agile, and a quick adapter.
We know that the success of our business lies in the future, not the past, and not even the present. We have opted to continually embrace change, and thus, we stay young, we stay relevant, we remain curious, and we continue to believe we are a start-up.
Redefining an Industry
Last week, our Tugboat Institute® members made the trip to Omaha, Nebraska, for Tugboat Institute @Supportworks to learn about this exemplary Evergreen® company, reconnect with value-aligned peers, and enjoy a taste of Omaha. Dave and Dan Thrasher, who are brothers, co-owners, and leaders of their second-generation family business, put together a remarkable program and experience for our group.
On Wednesday morning, Dan and Dave welcomed us all to their beautiful and impressive campus, where Supportworks, The Thrasher Group, Thrasher Partners, and their newest business, Hello Garage, are headquartered. We opened the first day with a fireside chat with Dan, Dave, and Tugboat Institute CEO Dave Whorton, during which they shared the story of their parents bootstrapping the business slowly, over three decades, before handing the reins to their sons. Dan and Dave dug in and grew it from a $4.5M business in 2004 to an over $400M revenue business this year. Although the business remained relatively small in the 29 years Greg and Nancy Thrasher ran it before their sons returned, that period was critical to its later growth and success. In those first three decades, Greg and Nancy moved their business to Omaha to serve a larger market, added foundation repair to their original basement waterproofing business, and learned how to be a dealer of another manufacturer’s products and later that same manufacturer’s distributor to other dealers. During this period, they built a local brand that was deeply trusted by their community based upon always doing the right thing by their customers and employees. From there, Dave and Dan shared how they founded Supportworks, scaled both it and the original Thrasher business, adopted M&A to respond to the entry of private equity into their space, and key lessons they learned in scaling the overall enterprise at over 20% annual compounded growth rate for the past two decades.
In the second talk of the morning, Dave Thrasher dove into the evolution of their business strategy, breaking it down decade by decade and highlighting critical milestones and decision points along the way. Amanda Harrington, President of Supportworks, took the stage next to share the story of the companies’ journey toward codifying, articulating, and integrating their Purpose, Redefine Our Industry, across the entire organization and in all strategy, planning, and business processes. Finally, Dave returned to the stage to end the day of talks with a deep dive into the catalysts for growth through acquisitions with their Evergreen M&A playbook.
Before we left the campus for the day, we were treated to a tour of their impressive shared headquarters with both Supportworks and Thrasher Group employees as our guides along the way. We could see the incredible attention paid to every detail, from the design of the office space to the layout of their warehouses. It was clear from the way their employees talked about their work that they are deeply dedicated to their Purpose, take pride in their work, company, and team, and enjoy and support each other.
On day two, Dan and Dave collaborated on a presentation about their recent experience launching a new vertical, Hello Garage. They were candid in sharing not only how they selected this vertical for expansion and their successes with this venture, but also the mistakes made along the way and the lessons learned. Next, Amanda Harrington returned to the stage to share how People First comes to life at all the Thrasher companies and shared the details of their essential people programs and processes. She offered numerous specific, actionable ideas that attendees could take away, tweak, and implement in their own businesses. The last formal presentation of the day was from Dan, who shared what it means to them to create and sustain a remarkable customer experience. He cautioned that CEOs should not delegate responsibility for making sure that it remains remarkable and that it’s a never-ending process of continuous improvement for the team. Anything less than fierce attention to this aspect of the business, Dan warns, creates significant risk to longevity.
Finally, as is our custom at our Tugboat Institute Exemplar visits, we finished the day with a Q&A with both Dan and Dave, moderated by Dave Whorton. The candor and transparency that had characterized the entire experience extended through this conversation, during which Dan and Dave addressed questions pertaining to their operations, as well as ownership succession, governance, family harmony, their working relationship, and the future of the company.
After each of our busy days, we gathered for celebration in some of Omaha’s most iconic spots, including, of course, a steakhouse on one night and the historic and breathtaking Durham Museum on another. Dan and Dave proudly shared their beautiful city with us, and our community reveled in the support, friendship, trust, shared values, and love that exemplify this extraordinary group of Evergreen leaders. Thank you, Dan and Dave, for a wonderful and powerful week of connection, inspiration, learning, and growth.
The Power of Patience: Our Long-Term Talent Strategy
The years following the pandemic brought with them the tightest labor markets we’ve seen in decades. If you are paying attention to demographic data and the outlook for the coming decades, you know that this is not likely to abate soon. The quest for talent stands as a perpetual challenge; the pursuit of individuals who not only have the skills and experience we seek but who also bring fresh perspectives and untapped potential is a mission critical endeavor. At Force Factor, the global health company I founded 15 years ago, we have been tackling this challenge through an exciting and evolving initiative: robust internship programs and leadership development initiatives.
At Force Factor, we develop and sell nutritional supplements and formulas whose efficacy is founded in scientific research. However, we do not manufacture our own products. We are asset light, which has its advantages, but which also means that our people and the processes they help us create and maintain are, by far, our greatest asset. As an Evergreen® company with strong People First values, it is part of our strategic vision to build our company with our team. Our team is everything.
At 15 years old, Force Factor is still relatively young, but we have moved out of the beginning phases of company building. We have achieved a level of stability that allows me to lengthen my time horizons as I think and plan for the future. We compete against some giants, such as Nestle and Unilever, as well as a great many companies that have been acquired by private equity. In this competitive landscape, therefore, I am always asking myself, what is our greatest competitive advantage? Our greatest difference from most of our competition is our ability to think in long time horizons.
Because of our Evergreen orientation and because our people are paramount to our success, culture is critical. Paying attention to building culture is a long-term initiative. As a part of this, onboarding, training, and developing people is also something that takes time. There are advantages to hiring in people with deep experience in a specific area of leadership, and sometimes this is the right way to build out the team. But where possible, I find it is powerful and critical to building a strong culture to hire people early in their careers and invest in them, over time.
Like many companies, we have long had a summer internship program. As we considered strategy for team building and the future of our company, we have doubled down on this program, expanding its scope and objectives a great deal. Force Factor's internship ecosystem now includes four entry points tailored to various stages of academic and professional development.
At the core of this program is the summer internship program, providing college students with hands-on experience and exposure to the company's operations. This is our third year of scaling our internship program and it has grown significantly each of those three years. Last summer we had 11 interns, which was a jump from the year before, and we expect to see that number increase again this summer. We are a company of just under 50 employees, so this is quite significant. Our focus is hiring locally, because we figure these students had a college experience heavily impacted by covid and have spent quite a lot of the past few years online. We think the in-person experience is powerful for them, and it is easier to teach them the business when they are here with us. We are fortunate to be in Boston, which is home to a lot of great universities, so the pool we are drawing from is deep.
The next program we are piloting is called the Coop Program. The Coop program is something that has existed at Northeastern University for a long time and it is powerful and unique. Students at Northeastern are strongly encouraged – even required in some majors – to spend two to three semesters of their time in college doing a Coop, or an internship, for a company. The university has built an incredible network over the many years it has been doing this, and has partnerships with companies in Boston, across the US, and across the world. Students work full-time, are compensated, and receive college credit for their work. We’d been talking about participating in the program for a long time, and we finally jumped in. Our first three Coops started this winter. In a lot of ways their experience is similar to the summer interns, but it affords some advantages the summer positions do not. Coops are here for longer than the summer interns since they spend the whole semester with us. While the summer interns love being part of a large cohort, there is something powerful in the focus we can maintain on this much smaller group of Coops while they are here. We’re really excited about this and expect to see it develop in the future.
Beyond the internship and Coop programs, Force Factor also participates actively in recruiting recent college graduates. We do on-campus recruiting and hire for full-time positions. The students will graduate in May and start working with us in August through what we call our Leadership Development Program (LDP). For these hires, we have created a rotational program across six different functional groups, and all hires move through all six over the course of one year. They spend about two months in each one, and at the end of the first year, the have gained an education in the company that has both depth and breadth. At the end of that time, the hope is that there is strong Venn diagram overlap between a student and a department where they have really thrived and contributed. If this goes in both directions, we move that person permanently into that department. We are in the process of doing that now with the five hires from last year. We are refining it as we go, but basically, after completing the program, the new hire will come into their permanent department one level above where they would have if they had been just hired off the street straight into the job.
Finally, our fourth entry point is aimed at bringing in people who are a little less green. We are actively hiring people out of MBA programs for specific positions within the company as well. We have just hired two, one of whom has already started and one who will start at the end of the summer.
We have been paying attention to retention of the young people who come in through these various programs. The programs require a lot of time and investment from the current team and from the company. The idea is that many of them will come back and become full-time employees. We want to be careful not to become a school, where people come in, learn powerful lessons, and then say, “Thanks!” and head off to work somewhere else. We had this in mind as we designed the programs, and we work hard to give them an experience that will make the right ones want to come back. It’s early still, but it’s looking promising. The woman on our talent acquisition team, for example, who is working right now to hire the next class of interns, was our intern two years ago.
There are other tweaks and improvements we have made and will continue to make as we go forward, but we are getting better at this. The first hire is the hardest, and after that, as you take lessons from your experience, you learn and refine. For example, we hired a few people who, based on their resumes, looked like they were skilled in Excel, but they were not. We learned that it was important to control for specific skills that are important to us, so we have implemented a simple Excel test, and now we don’t have that problem anymore. Most importantly, as we gain experience and as a few intern cohorts pass through the program, it gains renown and popularity, which helps draw even better people the next time around.
While the immediate returns on hiring recent graduates may seem modest, and the cost and effort may not seem worth it to every company, the compounding effects over time are profound. By nurturing talent from the ground up, we not only instill our People First culture but also harness the potential for exponential growth. Moreover, with an emphasis on meritocracy and diversity, internship programs serve to inject fresh perspectives and innovative thinking into the organization. If you have an urgent problem and need someone with a specific skill to fix it, this is obviously not the best way to get there. But if you can operate with an Evergreen mindset and be patient, this could pay dividends over time. We are counting on it!
Passion Drives Industry-Changing Innovation
Even if you don’t own one, I imagine you are familiar with the KitchenAid mixer. It is a beautiful product: sleek, durable, made from highly recyclable materials, and built to last for a long, long time. I have had mine for about 35 years. Although I am CEO of ECRS, a company that specializes in retail automation for grocery store technology, such as point of sale, self-checkout, inventory, and supply chain, as well as the software that runs on a deli scale, one of our most important innovations in recent years was inspired by this product outside our industry – the KitchenAid mixer.
As an Evergreen® company, we are dedicated to Pragmatic Innovation and are always looking for opportunities to do what we do better. In this case, as is often true, innovation began with a seed of dissatisfaction, a spark that ignites a desire for change. I saw room for improvement, both in quality and sustainability, in the industry standard with which we had been working for years. Thus began the story of our AutoScale™ Max.
The most common point of sale products for grocery stores, whether they contain scales or not, are made from plastic. The standard labels have a backing to them because they must be adhesive, which means they produce a significant amount of waste. The standard scales we have used for ages, which we’ve typically bought from partners in China, are therefore able to hold a roll that will last maybe three days. They tend to run out when you are at your busiest, and it’s a pain to change them. For a long time, this was our reality; we bought the scales from China, loaded our software on them, and sold them to our customers. But I knew we could do better, and I found myself thinking about that KitchenAid mixer. I wanted something to match that in design, elegance, quality, and capacity.
As I started to imagine the product I wanted to build—one that would be the KitchenAid of scales—I knew a few things had to change from the norm. I wanted to build it to last, and it seemed that building it out of metal rather than plastic was the best bet. I also didn’t see why we couldn’t design something that could hold a bigger roll of labels. Not just a little bigger, but much bigger. Working with partners, we found a special label that didn’t require backing, so we were able to increase efficiency and reduce waste that way, but why couldn’t the roll in the scale be twice as big as the normal ones? Or bigger? I set the goal to develop something that could hold a roll of labels that was ten inches thick. That would represent an 11x increase in length and a very significant time savings for customers.
I was fixated on creating something excellent and I was willing to do whatever it took not just to build a product, but to revolutionize it. Design, functionality, and sustainability drove our team's quest, but our path was not without hurdles. Initially, we engaged a design firm whose work was terrible, and ultimately resulted in setbacks. The first prototype they created that could contain the ten-inch roll was much larger than competing scales, which was not the point at all. That phase of the project was frustrating and caused us to lose quite a bit of money. If I hadn’t been driven by such an intense passion to succeed, we might have given up. But we didn’t.
As we regrouped after the first failed design attempt, we happened to discover a local designer right here in my hometown of Boone, North Carolina. In terms of his experience and skills, he was younger with much less experience than our original design partner, but something stuck out to me: his passion. He seemed as excited as we were by the project, and thanks to our shared enthusiasm and expertise, we started to gain momentum.
One of the keys to our eventual success was the fact that our new design team had the brilliant idea to incorporate the Microsoft Surface Tablet into our new design. It is embedded into the scale and it’s extremely fast and powerful. Because of this integration, we tapped into Microsoft’s supply chain, and because they are making millions of these, the cost came down – something we had not necessarily expected. In the end, we managed to produce a gorgeous looking piece of equipment that is built like a KitchenAid mixer. It fits seamlessly into a deli, holds a ten-inch roll of labels, and is faster and more powerful than anything else out there—and built more cost-effectively by developing it with our own in-house team!
Once we innovated the machine itself, we were able to simply insert the software we had already developed into it. The software in the AutoScale Max is almost identical to the software we used in our other machines, meaning we hardly had to spend any money on the coding side of the innovation. Before the AutoScale Max, we mostly sold point of sale software, which is extremely similar to the scale software. Now, we can sell products for point of sale and scales. If a customer, for example, has ten point of sale lanes, we can sell them products for all ten and we can also sell them the ten scales they need. We just doubled our sales! That fact, combined with the lower cost of the new machine, has resulted in savings for our customers, increased sales, and thus increased revenue for ECRS to reinvest in more innovative solutions that continually serve our customers.
As an additional outcome of all this, this innovation has significantly reduced our dependence on China. This was not necessarily one of our initial goals, but because of increasing concerns over supply chain vulnerabilities and ethical considerations, this turned out to be an added bonus. Our relationship with our Chinese suppliers was not problematic, but it was primarily driven by concerns of cost, convenience, and efficiency above all else. With this innovation, we find that we can maximize all of these, and at the same time, bring production right back here to home.
What is the lesson here? What drove this innovation process? First, when I look back at the road we travelled from the idea to the finished product, I realize that it would not have happened without my own almost obsessive passion for it. And the fact that our second designer shared that same passion was key. The rest, honestly, was just great problem solving. The integration of the Microsoft Tablet was fortuitous, but that is just another example of hitting a roadblock and looking around for a creative way to overcome it. The answers often lie in unexpected places and are not always as hard as you think they’ll be. It’s funny how passion can drive a team to make hard things easy.
Family Harmony in an Evergreen® Company
Family harmony and sustaining an Evergreen® business do not always jive. It takes hard work, even when all family members are mostly in sync. Learning ways to navigate these challenges has been one of the unexpected benefits I’ve gained from joining Tugboat Institute®. Here are some of the insights I’ve gained from many conversations with other multi-generational ownership groups.
If absolute family harmony - with siblings, children, cousins, nieces and nephews, in-laws - is your highest priority, it’s probably best to sell the business. The odds are, if you’re going to sustain your business over many generations (the essence of an Evergreen business), you will experience some degree of family discord. Not everyone will believe all decisions are “fair.”
The decision-making generation has the most responsibility to lay the groundwork to remain Evergreen and promote family harmony. Ideally, this would begin with the first generation, but that’s uncommon. Things get messier with each successive generation, especially if there is a lack of clarity about “family ground rules.” The generation in leadership must start from where they are.
There are a myriad of issues and possibilities to sort out. What are the criteria and expectations of ownership, governance, executive leadership, and employment? What is a “fair” way to distribute existing and future wealth? How, if at all, should those who work in the business be treated differently than those who don’t? Should “rules” be solidified in a trust, or should each successive generation have the flexibility to modify how things work?
There is no right way to transition ownership and leadership of a business from one generation to the next. The key is for the decision-making generation to own and communicate decisions – over and over. The next generation deserves and benefits from clarity and context. Too often, families don’t have those conversations and each person is left to create their own story.
These questions should be an explicit part of your work. They should be an agenda item at family meetings, holding company or business board meetings - whatever is most appropriate for your context. The work requires the same level of rigor as any other critical issue. And it is critical. Your Evergreen business needs clear answers in order to thrive.
When I stepped into leadership, our family business, High Plains Bank, did not have a clear set of “rules” to move from one generation to the next. In part, this is because the first two generations were small and intimate. Generations 1 and 2 included six people (grandparents; parents; uncle and aunt) who acquired the business together and worked closely for more than 30 years.
Generation 3 includes nine who are actively engaged but scattered about the state and country. Generation four includes as many as 15 (our family has a history of spouses getting involved) who are even more geographically dispersed and who don’t know each other well.
We must become far clearer on our “family ground rules” if we hope to sustain our Evergreen business for another three generations and beyond. If we don’t add clarity and cultivate an ownership mindset in the next generation, the level of the attachment to the business is likely to dissipate to the point that people are indifferent to being Evergreen.
Our family has been making progress. I realized at Tugboat Institute Gathering of Teams we still have much to do. With the help of Tugboat colleagues, I have a clearer sense of the work to be done and growing confidence that we can remain both Evergreen and a harmonious family.
I have been part of structured and informal Tugboat conversations with colleagues such as Jeet Kumar, George Giudici, Karen Keim, Steven Burger, Tom Rosztoczy, John Egger and my Tugboat Forum members, among others. Many of the Tugboat colleagues who have helped me sort through family issues may not remember these conversations. That’s the power of Tugboat’ Institute's design. Even informal conversations can provide transformative ideas.
Revolutionizing our Health Care Plan Through Reference-Based Pricing
The economics of modern healthcare have become a labyrinth for employers to negotiate, usually annually, where costs typically spiral out of control year over year. In the face of these perpetually and rapidly rising costs, at Stotz Equipment, we have been seeking a better path – both for us and for our employees – for some time now. A few years ago, we hit on an innovative strategy that is proving extremely effective and successful: reference-based pricing (RBP). RBP has garnered attention in recent years for its potential to rein in healthcare expenses while ensuring quality care, so we decided to give it a try.
In short, through RBP, which we began offering as an option for our employees just three years ago, we have seen significant savings. Specifically, this year, in year three, I would estimate that at Stotz, we saved about 65% on health care costs with this plan. At the same time, we have been able to provide high quality health care to our employees, without compromise. It’s made a staggering difference.
As you consider whether or not this might work for your company, let’s begin by establishing a clear understanding of what RBP is and how it works. I am leaning on my CHRO, Jared Nielsen, as I lay this out.
RBP represents a departure from traditional models. Instead of relying on complex negotiations between insurers and healthcare providers to set a percentage discount on a service whose price may fluctuate wildly, RBP sets a predetermined reimbursement amount for medical procedures. The reference point is typically based on a percentage of what Medicare would pay for the same service. At Stotz, we aim for 150% of Medicare costs. RBP plans are administered by a third-party administrator (TPA), and variations do exist across different groups and regions, where targets may differ based on local dynamics.
In the traditional healthcare model, in addition to the inability of an employer or an employee to control or predict the cost of a given service, lack of choice is a limitation. If your preferred doctor is ‘out of network,’ you are out of luck. And for the company providing insurance, it is nearly impossible to control costs. Any efforts to keep employees’ costs relatively stable can mean huge, unexpected increases in costs for employers, often every year.
What does RBP actually look like in action? It’s not complicated. The employer, with the help of a TPA, sets the reference price for various medical services. Employees have access to this information, so they know what to expect. When the need arises, the employee seeks treatment, from whichever facility or provider they like. The insurance plan pays the healthcare provider the predetermined reference price. If the provider accepts the reference price as full payment, the process ends here. Occasionally, the provider will push back, which can lead to a process called ‘balance billing.’ More on that in a moment.
How much below standard prices will the RBP prices be? It varies widely, but usually, it’s between a 300%-700% difference, when you’re talking facility costs. Providers tend to be a little lower than that unless they’re specialty providers. The savings are felt on both the employer and employee side, at least at Stotz. Because we are an Evergreen® company, we share our successes with our employees no matter how we are winning. Therefore, the windfall created by these significant savings didn’t go straight to the company’s bottom line. Rather, we passed a great portion of it on to employees.
With the traditional plan, we cover most of the premium costs for the employee – $200 of $250 for an individual. The employee pays the remaining $50. When employees elect to enroll in RBP (it is optional at this point), we cover 100% of their costs. They are saving $50 per paycheck, or $100 per month. The savings for families are even deeper; the traditional plan starts at $260 per paycheck for a family, but with RBP, it drops to $50. Those on the family plans are saving over $400 per month.
Why aren’t 100% of our employees enrolled in RBP? There are several reasons that can help you, as a leader, decide if and how to implement this in your company. First, it is new and different, and often, people are wary of radical change like this, especially when it comes to something as important as health care. In the first year, we offered it as an option and about 50% of employees elected to enroll. Secondly, although the TPA has set a rate for service, this doesn’t mean that all providers will accept this right off the bat. This is where balance billing can occur. It is not uncommon for a big bill to arrive, and then the employee has the responsibility to bring it to the TPA and start the process of negotiating for a better price. This period of negotiating – balance billing – can take time. Employees might find it stressful to receive a series of huge medical bills and wait for a long time to have the negotiations resolve. These employees might prefer the traditional plan.
On the employer side, there are some downsides as well. Occasionally, a provider refuses to accept the TPA rate, and then we have to fight it. This is rare, and only happens in about 1% of claims, but it does happen. My team manages this when it happens, so it means time, effort, and therefore money for us. Occasionally, our team decides to settle and pay over the 150% of Medicare, and that is also a cost we bear, but again, it’s rare. Even when there is not a fight, employees are inevitably going to come to Human Resources when they have claims or bills that arrive and they are not educated on the process yet. So it does cost us, but the costs go down over time.
Despite initial hurdles and trepidation, RBP is gaining traction within our team. In year three, enrollment numbers have grown to about 2/3 of the company. This evolution underscores the growing acceptance and efficacy of RBP in mitigating healthcare costs. Our progress with this initiative so far is encouraging. I can envision a healthcare landscape where RBP becomes the norm at Stotz, obviating the need for traditional plans. The benefits are palpable: reduced administrative burdens once everyone gets used to the new program, stabilized premiums, and empowered employees making informed healthcare choices.
For us, reference-based pricing has been a game-changer in a healthcare landscape fraught with escalating costs. We are self-insured, and that is an important part of why this makes sense for us. Beyond that, the tolerance of your employees to try something new and the expertise on your team to manage the transition are the only other critical ingredients. It’s a great program. By anchoring itself on transparent reimbursement rates and empowering employees with cost-effective options, we believe that RBP could be the path to vastly improved affordability and accessibility in healthcare, not just for us, but for many companies.
Evergreen Company of the Year™
Get to Know O.C. Tanner, the Inaugural Evergreen Company of the Year™
Here at Tugboat Institute®, we recently announced our first ever Best Evergreen Companies™ list as well as our first ever Evergreen Company of the Year™ award. Today, we’d like to introduce you to O.C. Tanner, the inaugural Evergreen Company of the Year. O.C. Tanner represents excellence across all of the Evergreen 7Ps® principles, and we are proud that they will carry this title and stand forever as the first in what we expect will be a long list of wonderful Evergreen® companies. Understanding O.C. Tanner and what makes them so deserving of this award is a wonderful way to better understand Tugboat Institute and the Evergreen movement. Let’s take a moment to get to know them better.
History of O.C. Tanner
O.C. Tanner was founded by Obert Clark Tanner, in 1927. The company, which originally made seminary graduation pins and class rings, was founded on the twin pillars of beauty and kindness. In the early days, Obert sold his wares out of the back of his car, but in the 66 years he led the company, he succeeded in growing it to $214M in revenues.
When he started the company, Obert was a professor of philosophy at the University of Utah; he believed deeply in education and in the dignity and worth of people. Obert’s dedication to education remained steadfast throughout his lifetime. As soon as the company was able, or perhaps even a bit before, Obert made sure that they gave back to the community regularly. He favored supporting educational institutions and programs, and even today, O.C. Tanner maintains close relationships with educational institutions and programs of all sorts.
Before he stepped down from leadership of O.C. Tanner, Obert understood that if wanted his beloved company to remain grounded in the values that meant so much to him, he would have to plan for it. He created a visionary Transition Document that laid out the guidelines and processes that would guide ownership and leadership succession far into the future. His ability to grasp and articulate the importance of staying private in order to maintain culture and a commitment to Purpose was far ahead of his time. But he succeeded; Obert’s spirit and vision remain alive and palpable in the company today.
Guided by his dedication to beauty and kindness as well as his commitment to creating a superior product, Obert developed the motto that is still often repeated today; “let’s get a little better every day.”
Leadership at O.C. Tanner
Tugboat Institute® got to know this remarkable company through Dave Petersen, who served as CEO for more than 15 years. Dave became a member of Tugboat in 2021 and has been a wonderful community member. Right in line with the values and spirit of the company he led, Dave has contributed a great deal to our community. His contributions culminated in his agreement to host Tugboat Institute @O.C. Tanner in 2022. A group of about 100 Tugboat members spent two and a half days in Salt Lake City, learning with and from Dave and his team, including Scott Sperry, who was COO at the time. During our visit, we began to get to know Scott, and were impressed by his deep commitment to strategy and to building structures that ensure the company will endure for the long term. In the past year, Scott has stepped into the CEO role, and we are thrilled to get to know him better in the coming years. After serving the company so well for so long, Dave has transitioned into the role of Vice Chair of the Board, where, along with Stephen Tanner Irish, Obert’s grandson, he continues to contribute to this extraordinary company.
Who is O.C. Tanner today?
The Evergreen Company of the Year™, by definition, represents the pinnacle of excellence across the Evergreen 7Ps principles. O.C. Tanner is indeed excellent across them all, but four of them are worth calling out specifically here.
When it comes to Pragmatic Innovation, there is no better example. Though they started out making pins and class rings, today, O.C. Tanner is the global leader in software and services that improve workplace culture through meaningful employee recognition experiences. They have literally transformed from a manufacturing company into a global leader in SaaS, all while remaining true to their identity and their purpose of celebrating and honoring people. This is the kind of innovation that is key to building companies stay relevant and that will last 100 years or more.
When it comes to keeping the company Private, O.C. Tanner is also an exemplar. First, Obert understood the extent to which this was critical, as well as the extent to which it could be at risk if steps were not taken to protect its private status. Second, he understood that the riskiest moments in any company’s life are the moments of transition – both ownership and leadership - so he zeroed in on those when he created his Transition Document. Although it dates back to 1977, this document stands as a unique and powerful example of how clear leaders and owners must be if they intend to preserve their companies for the long term. Almost 50 years later, it still serves as a model for many leaders who seek to accomplish the same.
When we speak about Purpose, we recognize that there are almost limitless possibilities for the shape and scope this might take for different companies. However, we explicitly understand that the Purpose of an Evergreen company will be authentic and will aim to make life better for its employees, their families, their communities and the world. O.C. Tanner’s purpose is clearly and simply stated: “We help people thrive at work.” The excellence they have achieved comes not from the statement itself. While it is authentic, ambitious, and clear, alone, it does very little. The excellence lives in the way the purpose is infused across all aspects of the company, from products, to processes, to policies, to work with clients, to projects in the community, to relationships, and beyond. It is not simply why they exist; it is who they are.
Finally, O.C. Tanner is exemplary when it comes to People First. People First is not only the foundation of their culture and philosophy, but it is also literally their business. Scott Sperry spoke to this in O.C. Tanner’s recent press release, following the announcement of the award. He said, “Our purpose is to help people thrive at work. I'm proud to work alongside a team and with clients that truly believe in this mission.”
We are honored to count Dave, Stephen, and Scott, as well as many of their colleagues at O.C. Tanner, among our friends at Tugboat Institute. And we could not be more thrilled to share them with you through this profile, as our first Evergreen Company of the Year.
Paddling for a Purpose
This is a story about the evolution of the Evergreen® business I founded in 1977, The Motz Group. It is also a story about me and my personal journey as I approach the end of my career and the next phase of my life. As I suspect might be true for most Evergreen founders and leaders, the two journeys – the professional and the personal – are deeply intertwined.
Motz is a Natural & Synthetic Turf & Field Construction company. We create and supply infill products for outdoor spaces where people move, play, and compete. Our team is also driven by Purpose, which is reflected in every aspect of our work. At Motz, we move people to better lives. As the company has grown over the years, we continue to intentionally partner with businesses and organizations that align with our purpose.
An important step forward happened in 2019, when I took a sabbatical for 90 days and embarked on a bike ride around the country. I spoke about this experience at Tugboat Institute® Summit in 2019. In many ways, it was the catalyst for the story I am going to share today. I set out to raise money to benefit Parkinson’s research and while my original intentions were somewhat modest and mostly personal, it became a Purpose effort that was embraced by The Motz Group. (link to my original talk HERE) It was powerful to see how engaged both our organization and the community became. When I returned, I was determined to level up our efforts at Motz to put our Purpose into action and to do it in a big way.
When I transitioned out of my longtime CEO role, my duties shifted away from leading the Motz enterprise, and one of my main objectives became the creation of a full, embracing, corporate strategy of moving a community of people to a better place. We recently launched the purpose arm of our business, Motz Moves. Motz Moves encompasses community engagement, owner engagement, and our business philosophy to make the biggest possible impact.
Our team has a great passion for giving back to the community. When we started to assemble the collection of these efforts under Motz Moves, they became even more engaged. We offer four paid days off for every employee to engage in volunteer work that is meaningful to them. We also established a corporate service day, where we work together toward a specific cause. These are just a couple of examples of how we empower our employee owners and support community partners in creating positive, lasting change.
As I approached my 70th birthday, I felt the urge to do something to commemorate this milestone in my life. Drawing from the extremely rewarding experience I had in 2019 on the bike, on my 65th birthday, I decided to undertake a new challenge.
Beginning in January of this year, I started building a canoe. I started from a tree, cut it down, and milled the wood with the goal of making it into a river-worthy canoe. On June 29, I will embark on a 3,000 mile canoe expedition that will start in Cincinnati, go down the Ohio River, up the Mississippi, up the Illinois and into Lake Michigan, cross over into Canada, go through the Northern Tier, back down Lake Huron to Lake Erie, and then down the Ohio to Cincinnati to complete the loop. For about a third of the trip I will travel downstream, a third will be flat, and a third upstream.
The impetus for this trip was largely personal, to be sure. I have moved out of the CEO role I occupied for so long and like other Evergreen founders and leaders in my position, I was eager to find meaning and purpose as I start my Second Act. As I approach my milestone birthday, I want to accomplish something difficult, prove I am still physically fit and mentally strong, and have the perseverance needed to stay the course. But unlike my bike trip, from the start, this initiative has been closely tied to Motz, our Purpose, and ways in which we can elevate our work in our communities.
This trip, which is called Paddle for a Purpose, will benefit an organization called The Bridge Adaptive Sports & Recreation, which increases awareness and promotes opportunities for individuals to participate in adaptive sports and recreation in order to improve their quality of life. Participating athletes have experienced significant challenges in their lives – stroke or multiple ailments of disability, either nervous or physical – but there's tremendous opportunity for them to still enjoy an active, vibrant life, versus just surviving. Helping further the work of this organization is exactly in line with our purpose of moving people to better lives. So, I have shared and will continue to share my progress, starting with the canoe build and on through the expedition itself, with my entire team. I’ll be posting weekly videos to the Motz Moves social media channels so anyone can follow the expedition. Our team and supporters can get involved in so many ways.
First, there are a lot of logistics involved in planning the many phases of this trip; this effort is a piece that the team is and will be involved in. Our marketing team is collaborating with The Bridge to get the word out, so more people are aware of the opportunity to engage and support. Company-wide, people are joining in to create a spirit of camaraderie on the water together. There'll be multiple places where team members, athletes from The Bridge and other interested groups and individuals are going to join for a day, paddling for a purpose together. And then people are working together on other initiatives that correspond to this, to further increase our impact.
Beyond Motz, there's an incredible cottage community of volunteers called River Angels. It's much like on trails; people are happy to help when you pass through. I imagine they’re thinking, "Gosh, this poor soul is out there paddling away. We're going to offer him up a cold drink or a bite to eat." I see a lot of opportunities to interact with the local communities as I move through them. What excites me the most is just really getting to know people across the Midwest, because it's always the serendipitous meetups, just salt of the earth people, that re-instill your faith in humanity.
I think circles are powerful. The metaphor of traveling a great distance to end up where you started, but having gained so much knowledge and experience, is powerful. And the ripple that a circle on the water creates, when a pebble is dropped or a paddle touches the water, is meaningful as well. The excitement around this initiative is growing like a ripple – getting broader and reaching farther in all directions.
As I plan and prepare for this trip, I can’t help but think how much my expedition is like both business and life, especially for the Evergreen leader. Sometimes, for example, we’ve got to paddle against the flow. I've experienced paddling against the flow, and you really have to learn to read the water and all the nuances to make any progress forward. Just like everything else, it seems like the hardest sections and the hardest challenges teach you the most. The reward of accomplishing something that you were not sure you could do, and that makes people’s lives better, is priceless.
To follow Joe’s Paddle for a Purpose journey in real-time and learn more, visit motzpaddleforapurpose.org. You can also follow us on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn!
Overcoming the Fallout of Hiring the Wrong CEO
In business, leaders are often reluctant to share stories of failures. However, like everywhere else, the most valuable lessons usually emerge from acknowledging and dissecting what went wrong. At Concentric, the security firm where I serve as Executive Chair, a few years ago we had a difficult experience that grew from a failure. We hired the wrong person into our top leadership position, and it cost us. While it was painful, we learned an enormous amount.
Hiring at all levels is important, and in all cases, a bad hire costs time, effort, and therefore money. In most cases, the damage – to the budget and to company culture – done by a bad hire can be limited by a quick reaction; if you can recognize and remove the person quickly, you can minimize damage done. But when you hire a CEO, the stakes are much higher and the process of recognizing and correcting the mistake can take much longer. This is our story.
As a founder, I was the first CEO of Concentric. When I was ready to step down from being CEO and hand it off to the next leader, I tapped the man who had helped me found the company in the beginning; he had contributed a great deal to building Concentric and had done a great job in previous roles. He was a good listener and a tireless worker, he made good tactical decisions, and he seemed able to bring different groups within the company together to form consensus and set projects in motion. His strengths in his previous roles, however, which gave me the confidence to move him into the CEO role, turned out to be his greatest weaknesses as the leader of the company.
It should come as no surprise that trust is a critical element of leadership and a high-functioning team. The executive team must trust the leader, and the entire team must as well. When I brought in this new CEO, I was comforted by the fact that he was a known entity, both to me and the company, and therefore, in addition to assuming he had the skills to get the job done, I made the leap to assuming that his long tenure equaled trustworthiness. A final, critical component of this situation was that this was a big transition for me, professionally and personally, to move from the CEO role into the Executive Chair role; I was heavily invested in the transition working out. For all these reasons, I allowed myself to be blind to some of the early signs that we had a problem.
Although it took me far too long to realize he was the wrong person for the job, in retrospect, the signs were there from the beginning. The lessons we’ve drawn from this experience fall into two categories: how to recognize and act quickly when your new CEO is not the right person for the job, and how to avoid making this bad hire to begin with.
When you are in charge, you can either choose to surround yourself with people who will think for themselves and challenge you when necessary, or with people who are your fans, who will laugh at all your jokes, and who will always agree with you. I did see early on that my new CEO was choosing to surround himself with fans. His skill at bringing people together translated into a strong desire for harmony and an aversion to pushing the envelope and asking hard questions. Instead of raising a red flag, I explained it away, and reminded myself what a good tactical decision-maker he had proven himself to be. In addition, a strong leader needs to have a strong North Star, and not be malleable, or susceptible to the influence of his team, whether they be superiors or subordinates. In the absence of this North Star, a bad leader can find themselves captive to the team below them, always shifting and changing to please the team. This was happening, and this is a warning sign that I overlooked – again, largely because I was so invested in this working and so convinced that trust was in place.
The initial allure of promoting someone from within the company, someone trusted and familiar, can sometimes blind decision-makers to the challenges of transitioning from an employee to a leader. It turned out that the skills that had made our new CEO successful in his previous roles did not transfer to his new position. This seems clear to me now, but I couldn’t see it at the time. I realized too late that the fit wasn't right, although the signs started to appear immediately.
In retrospect, I see that I could have prepared myself to look for and identify warning signs such as a lack of curiosity, an inability to challenge information, or a failure to articulate a compelling vision. Being on the lookout for things like this can help preemptively address potential leadership mismatches. However, even with vigilance, mistakes can occur, leading to a tumultuous period of cleanup and recovery.
The aftermath of a bad CEO hire is far-reaching, impacting not only internal dynamics but also client relationships and overall company culture. In our case, trust was eroded with many of our stakeholders, internal strife spiked up, and there were tangible negative effects on the company's bottom line.
Once I finally took action, there was a lot of work to be done. The bad CEO had broken trust with clients as well as knocking our internal culture off balance. I resumed the role of CEO and spent the next few months making an apology tour, to try to repair the damage done. During this time, we lost some clients and saw our revenues dip. These were concrete, financial, existential problems we were dealing with.
Internally, I instigated a cultural reset within the organization to mitigate long-term damage. A lot of relationships had been damaged, some beyond repair. There were people who saw the problems early on and were alienated because of it. Then there were the people who were holding sway over the CEO, who did not want to relinquish their position of power. We lost some people from both groups as we put the company back together.
Fortunately, when we were stabilized and ready for our next new CEO, I had a clearer view of what I was looking for and was able to find and hire a wonderful person for the role. This time, we sought a leader with vision and a strong sense of values, a true North Star that aligned with our Purpose, and a willingness to lead the team into new territory, even if it caused people to shift out of their comfort zones. We were lucky to find just the right person. Under his leadership, we have not only repaired the damage caused by the bad CEO, but we have doubled, and then tripled in size. Concentric is now thriving, and I am grateful that we were able to recover from that challenging setback.
In any company, the impact of the CEO is enormous, which means that the consequences of a wrong hire can be drastic. In Evergreen® companies, this risk is perhaps even greater because what gets damaged the most – relationships – is the bedrock of all People First, Purpose-driven organizations. Fortunately, Evergreen companies are also in it for the long haul, so if they have the will and the leadership to undertake to repair a broken culture, provided the financial mistakes are still repairable, they have the time to make it happen.
I hope our experience can help others avoid learning this lesson the hard way. It’s a mistake that can threaten the very existence of a company. In our case, we were fortunate; despite the setbacks caused by our failed leadership hire, Concentric has emerged stronger, with a renewed sense of purpose and direction.
The Compounding Power of Community – Tugboat Institute® Summit 2024
At Tugboat Institute®, we frequently talk about the sources of competitive advantage afforded to Evergreen® companies. A key one is their commitment to profitable, Paced Growth over years and decades that leads to a powerful compounding effect. We see this compounding effect in capital over time, strength of culture over time, honing of know-how and innovation over time, and impact against their Purpose over time, to name several. This past week, at Tugboat Institute Summit 2024, the compounding effects of our growing membership, built over time on a foundation of trust, were on full display. It has allowed our membership to deepen past relationships while forming new ones, with authenticity and curiosity. It has allowed members to share their experiences, best practices, new ideas, setbacks, accomplishments, and inspiration with each other whether from the stage, on a hike, or over a meal. Our growing membership and the resources and feedback it provides us has also allowed us to launch new, exciting offerings, as illustrated by an announcement we made during our week together.
While bringing our like-minded leaders together is top of our list of priorities, learning is a close second when we have in-person experiences, and we spent two mornings learning from our peers and thought leaders aligned with our Evergreen values.
On the first day of talks, Professor Hermann Simon joined us, all the way from Bonn, Germany, to share his wisdom around Hidden Champions. Hidden Champions are medium sized, market-leading companies who are relatively unknown but who have captured an outsized share of their market and are export powerhouses. Alan Beaulieu, of ITR Economics, shared an update on his economic outlook for the coming years, specifically the great depression he sees coming in 2030. Tugboat’s own Dr. Gary Kunkle, research specialist and expert in sustained growth companies, shared a short perspective on the return on philanthropy, assuring us that in addition to doing good for good’s sake, Evergreen companies’ philanthropic efforts also have a positive effect on new and future employees and customers, and the bottom line. Tugboat member Jeff Patterson, Founder & CEO of Gaggle, next shared what he had learned on his quest for strategy, starting with clarity around the concept of strategy itself. Jeff Chungath, member and CEO of Telligen and a bio-medical engineer by training, shared the careful and meticulous work they do in his company to continuously improve all aspects of the business in an efficient and effective way. Dr Sonja Lyubomirsky, distinguished professor and researcher at University of California at Riverside, shared her research and data on happiness – what makes us happy, and what we can do to effectively increase happiness. Member John Burns then shared a short perspective on hybrid work; he finds that it gives his company, John Burns Research & Consulting, a distinct competitive advantage at a time when many companies are backing off from remote work. Dr. Denise Pope, Stanford professor and co-founder of Challenge Success, shared a talk about the importance of helping our over-scheduled kids find balance in today’s world. And Tugboat member Steve Doerfler shared a powerful talk about his personal and professional journey into leadership at Metalcraft, which was characterized by some unusual and difficult challenges. Finally, our first day of talks included a panel discussion, led by Stanford professor and longtime Tugboat friend Dr. Roberta Katz, between Dave Petersen, Vice Chair of the Board of O.C. Tanner, and Lisa Ingram, President & CEO of White Castle. Each of these respected leaders shared their philosophies on managing conversations around polarizing and political topics in their firms.
On the second day of talks, three more thought leaders, Sam Walker, Paul Seck, and Jeffrey Korzenik, shared their wisdom on various topics. Sam is the author of The Captain Class and shared his insights into the shared characteristics of the winningest teams of all time. Paul is a landscape architect whose firm regularly partners with engineers and city planners, and he shared how their collaborations make space for creativity to flourish. Jeffrey is an economist by profession and also a passionate advocate for Second Chance hiring. He shared the why and the how of this practice which is not only a solution to a societal problem, but to our country’s long-term labor shortage as well. In addition to these outside speakers, we heard from six Tugboat members on day two. In two short talks, member Kris Maynard spoke about his recent experience transitioning from founder & CEO to Executive Chair of Cathedral Holdings and member Paul Mears III shared the strategies that allowed him to find as much harmony as possible between his work as President & CEO of Hello! Destination Management and family commitments, both topics that touch all Evergreen leaders at some point in their lives. Tugboat members Scott White, CEO of IGS Energy, Elizabeth Glasbrenner, co-founder, President & CEO of Smiley Technologies, Brad Herrmann, founder & President of Text-em-All, and Kirk Aubry, President & CEO of Savage rounded out the day. Scott stepped on stage next to share his outlook on the energy landscape in the coming years, and what business leaders can do to protect themselves from potentially disruptive events and phenomena. Brad, whose company is early in its journey to become an Employee Owned Trust, shared what he has learned and what he loves about this unique ownership structure. Elizabeth shared how some enormous personal and professional transitions have shaped her outlook on life and her leadership style. And Kirk shared his compelling vision for what he calls the ‘Secret Sauce’ that is the true source of power of the Evergreen company – connection.
In addition to the inspiring and powerful learning that took place each day, we had the opportunity to celebrate our incredible community in the evenings. On one of these evenings, we had the honor to announce the first-ever Best Evergreen Companies™ list and the first Evergreen Company of the Year™. To learn more about this new initiative, aimed at elevating and celebrating Evergreen leaders and companies in our society, read the announcement here.
Over a decade into the Evergreen movement the compounding effects of this community were clear. New members felt it as they met their peers in person for the first time, returning members felt it as they sunk back into the atmosphere of joyous and authentic connection, Tugboat team members felt it as their pride in supporting such a wonderful group of people soared, and even our thought leader speakers shared that they felt it. What we heard many times from our members during this past week is that our community is different and truly special. We are not only bound by a unique and shared set of values and by the support we can offer each other as we walk the challenging path of leading an Evergreen company. We are also bound by the certainty, reinforced every time we connect, that despite the challenges, we are doing it the right way – the Evergreen way – and contributing to making life better for a great many people.