How I Transformed My Company by Transforming Myself
Bruce Williams, CEO of US Tool, learned a tough lesson fairly early in his career as second-generation leader of the family-owned specialty manufacturing firm. In this talk from Tugboat Institute Summit 2020, Bruce shares the difficult conversation that served as a catalyst for personal and professional growth and the parallel, positive trajectory of the business over many years that was the result.
Virtual Gathering, Real Learning and Connection
In the last 12 months, we have all had to redefine what it means to “gather.” Among families, friends, and professional circles, the reality of this pandemic year has led us to adapt and innovate new experiences and opportunities to connect.
The value of making an effort to come together in spite of continued barriers to in-person experiences was clear last week as Evergreen® leaders and executive teams connected virtually for the second annual Tugboat Institute Gathering of Teams. The fresh perspective, affirmation of shared values, and energy generated from time spent in community with like-minded peers made for an impactful event.
The experience launched on Tuesday, February 2, when 275 members, executives, and family members from 57 companies across 17 industries around the U.S., the UK, and Canada logged on and settled in to listen, learn, and engage. Over three half-days of programming, attendees viewed live and pre-recorded TED-style talks, participated in breakout sessions and speaker dialogues, and gathered in functional role groups to work through challenges and opportunities and explore best practices.
On the first day, attendees heard from four Evergreen CEOs who shared personal experiences and key learnings on the following topics: allowing talented, less-experienced team members to lead opportunistic innovation during stressful periods; redefining customer service excellence; becoming an effective manager and leader; and, making decisions and moving forward together without a playbook in times of uncertainty.
In the final presentation of the day, former Herman Miller executive and Hope College management professor Vicki TenHaken spoke on the topic of business longevity, sharing highlights of her research into companies that endure beyond 100 years.
The second day of the experience was devoted to virtual functional role workshops, during which attendees gathered with Evergreen peers to discuss central themes with their entire group. Later, each group broke into smaller, more intimate breakouts, allowing each participant to share a key issue or opportunity and to learn from their peers’ experiences and wisdom on that topic.
Innovation was a clear through line in several of the presentations on day three, when attendees gathered for a second series of five TED-style talks. One Evergreen CEO described practices developed in his 135-year-old company to foster continuous improvement and prioritize diversity of thought, including intentional efforts to attract team members with varied professional backgrounds. Another CEO shared the primacy of deep work at her 20-year-old, fully-remote firm and the People First operations that have been developed in support—including a four-day work week.
Michael Horn, Co-founder of the Clayton Christensen Institute for Disruptive Innovation, offered a provocative idea in his talk: Silicon Valley is touted as the hub of innovation, with almost all its companies referring to themselves as “disruptive.” But Evergreen companies, operating with an “impatient for profit, patient for growth” mentality and generational planning horizons, are actually poised to be the engine for future “market-creating” disruptive innovations. Michael emphasized that while these innovations can take a long time to germinate from initial non-consumption to mass-market consumption, the benefit to society and these innovators is that these particular innovations lead to a far greater number of jobs than either of Clayton Christensen’s two other innovation types.
In the final two presentations, attendees gained insight into soon-to-be published research focused on the experiences and influences of the next generation of Evergreen employees—Gen Z—by Roberta Katz, JD, PhD, Senior Research Scholar, Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University, and were offered insights into the successful storytelling process of respected script writer and film producer Allyn Stewart, Managing Partner of Flashlight Films.
Following final speaker dialogue sessions, attendees signed off the virtual experience, sharing messages of gratitude with their peers as they left the experience and promising to continue the conversation. As we head toward the hopeful possibility of in-person gatherings in the year ahead, we do so with gratitude for all we’ve learned about the ongoing commitment of Evergreen leaders and teams to overcome barriers to continue to listen, learn, and connect.
Diana Price is Senior Writer and Editor at Tugboat Institute.
Curiosity and 100% Responsibility
As an expert in small-group dynamics and leadership development, Kaley Klemp coaches leaders and organizations in communication and interaction skills to help develop trusting, effective teams. In this presentation from Tugboat Institute Summit 2020, Kaley describes the concept of being “above or below the line” in relationships and the three unproductive roles of the “drama triangle,” which can stifle clear communication, creativity, and problem solving. Kaley’s new book, The 80/80 Marriage, explores how these same dynamics show up in intimate relationships.
The First Rule of our Evergreen Business: “Do the Right Thing”
In 1946, Kenneth Savage returned home to Utah from serving in World War II and purchased a KB-5 International stake body truck, the first investment in C.A. Savage & Son. Together with his brothers, Neal and Luke, who joined the company shortly after its founding, Kenneth would drive 75 miles outside of Salt Lake, load the truck with seven tons of coal—by hand—and drive it back to Salt Lake City, where the brothers would deliver the critical fuel to their Customers’ stores and homes.
From that humble beginning, the Savage Family of Companies, which provides service offerings for truck, rail, and marine transportation and logistics, materials handling, and other industrial services, has grown to employ 5,000 Team Members across 220 locations around the world. The driving factor in the success of our Evergreen® company’s Paced Growth for over 70 years has been a deep, abiding commitment, first by the Savage brothers, and now by those of us who are stewards of the business, to their founding principles.
In 1999, Kenneth, Neal, and Luke, drafted a Vision & Legacy document, which serves as our cultural constitution. It lays out the Founders’ expectations regarding how we act with one another and with our stakeholders, and it serves as the bedrock of the Company. As many times as our mission and our strategic direction might change, the Vision & Legacy remains immovable. We lead according to that legacy, and we’re all expected to live it.
The document outlines the Founders’ vision for continued growth through future generations, their sense of stewardship, their commitment to integrity, their desire for Team Members to find fulfillment in their work, and their relentless commitment to continuous improvement. The language is rich and expressive, reflecting the passion and perseverance that formed our Company and how it continues to thrive to this day.
As leaders of the Company today, we recognize that if we want all of our Team Members, across job functions and geographies, to live and lead according to the Vision & Legacy, we need to ensure that the principles and values continue to resonate and are accessible and easy to understand. So, we've spent some time distilling it down to three actionable, clear principles: First, “Do the right thing;” second, “Find a better way;” and, third, “Make a difference.”
The power of presenting the Vision & Legacy in this way is that those three phrases actually also connect to the personalities of our three Founders. “Do the right thing,” very much reflects Kenneth Savage, the oldest brother. His handshake was a contract. Anybody who knew him, knew that if he gave you his word, it was the law. “Find a better way” is Neil, the middle brother, who simply expected that he, and everyone he worked with, would never get comfortable with the way things have been done, and “Make a difference” was Luke, who was always pushing for meaningful value for Customers. Making those personal connections brings the Vision & Legacy to life for our Team Members.
Also significant, especially from the Evergreen perspective, is that the Vision & Legacy reflects the fact that the Founders didn’t just want to preserve what they’d grown; they wanted to perpetuate it. They wanted the Company to continue to grow and thrive for generations to come. That's really the elegance of what they expressed—the desire for continual improvement and for Team Members to continue to embody these principles through that ongoing evolution.
Specific parts of the Vision & Legacy are demonstrated by Team Members every day. Our culture is a reflection of how the document has been operationalized and is continually reinforced. Recently, I met with executives from a large oil and gas corporation that we’re working with on a large project. When I asked their team about any concerns or issues they may have about the project, they said, “We love your culture so much, and our only concern is that we want to make sure that any new people you bring into the project are properly assimilated – we want to make sure they’ve been ‘Savage-ized’." They clearly understood the power of the culture as a driver of our team and the success of the project.
The directive to “make a difference” is also clear and present today through our philanthropic efforts. We involve Team Members in service projects because we understand that we have an obligation to give back and to be stewards not only of our company but of the communities where we work and live.
We also try to create fulfilling work and provide opportunities for Team Members, as our Founders articulated in the Vision & Legacy when they committed to help people “do things that they never dreamed possible.” For that to happen, we have to be seriously interested in finding out for each Team Member, "What do you aspire to do?" Then, whether the answer is to be the best driver in our Company or to be a CFO, we have an obligation to help each person understand the steps that will get them there and then help them chart a course to operationalize this unique part of the Vision & Legacy.
To see the impact of our commitment to Team Members’ growth and development is incredibly fulfilling. We make a point, when we discuss the Vision & Legacy at company events, to ask, "Are you doing something today that you never dreamed possible?" To see the number of hands that shoot up is amazing. And while it’s exciting for me to see, I think it’s even more powerful for more recently hired Team Members who might be wondering whether the principles of the Vision & Legacy are the “real deal.” When they see these other Team Members’ hands go up—a mechanic who’s now a Business Unit Leader or a woman who began in an entry-level role who now leads our IT organization — they see real, live examples of how we live these principles.
There’s no question that there’s challenge in maintaining the power of the Vision & Legacy as we grow. But that document will remain the foundation, our cultural constitution, because it’s so important to us, and people “get” the value of it. We teach it all the time. We reinforce it all the time. We showcase it all the time. We use it when we talk to Customers. We use it when we talk to current Team Members and to future Team Members. We use it when we do exit interviews because we want to make sure we haven't damaged it. It’s embedded, and that’s how it will live on. Our Vision & Legacy is a living, breathing part of our Company, and to keep it alive, we’ll need to continue to nourish it as it sustains our Evergreen Company.
Kirk Aubry is President and CEO of Savage.
Leadership Lessons
Allen Serfas founded and leads Assistance Home Care in St. Louis, Missouri, a business he and his wife were inspired to launch after helping to care for his father in law at home over many years. Allen’s personal experience and his unique home care business model reflects an innovative and Purpose-driven approach, informed by a 20+year career in a completely different industry.
The Most Successful, Yet Little Known, Recycling Program Since the 1950s Has Evergreen Roots
Sustainability has been the driving force behind our Evergreen® company, East Penn Manufacturing, since DeLight Breidegam, Jr. and his father, DeLight Sr., founded the company in 1946.
When DeLight Jr. returned home to rural Pennsylvania after serving in the Air Force in WWII, he and his father noticed the shortage of materials available to manufacture batteries and began collecting and rebuilding old batteries to meet the post-war demand. For DeLight Jr., who was raised during the depression, recycling in this way was common sense.
That sense of pragmatism and what he would have called “common sense” forged the foundation of many of the practices that DeLight Jr. went on to implement as he grew the company to become a global leader in battery manufacturing. He always had a long-term view, and, for him, that meant building a company that would look after the environment, employees’ well-being, and the community.
I was lucky enough to work with DeLight Jr. when he was still actively leading the company, and he used to say to me, “Pruitt, they’re not making any more land, so we’ve got to take care of it.” That pragmatic expression of environmental stewardship is at the core of East Penn’s steadfast commitment to sustainable practices, and it propels our recycling efforts, which are a pillar of our environmental protection plan.
When people hear about the scale of our recycling programs, they’re often surprised. We manufacture lead batteries—the type in most cars, trucks, and other vehicles today—and many people aren’t aware that 99 percent of lead batteries in the United States are recycled. (In comparison, only 40 percent of aluminum cans are recycled.) This is perhaps the biggest recycling success story that never makes the headlines.
At East Penn, following DeLight Jr.’s early lead, we’ve been recycling since the 1950s, when these practices were not as widespread, to say the least. Why? It comes back, again, to our founder’s common-sense approach to growing a company for the long term. It absolutely makes economic sense to create a sustainable product with a circular life cycle, but it also aligns with our commitment to environmental stewardship because if the batteries were not recycled over and over, they'd be considered hazardous waste.
Instead, we receive spent batteries back at our facility, where we process approximately 30,000 batteries per day, safely recycling all of the components—lead, plastic, and acid—and creating new batteries with about 80 percent recycled materials. We also recycle all of the corrugated cardboard and shrink-wrapping materials we use to package the batteries for distribution via an external recycling entity.
Our investment in the facilities and technology to recycle has been considerable over the years. We built our smelter in 1947 and the battery industry’s first acid reclamation plant in 1992. In 1996, we built a $14 million industrial wastewater treatment zero-discharge facility. We have seven or eight miles of pipe laid underground here at East Penn, and no wastewater leaves our premise. None. It's all processed, cleaned, and reused. The only water that leaves our premises is the sanitary waste, which goes to the local waste municipality. These long-term, common-sense investments keep the company sustainable and reduce our impact on the environment. We never second-guess those financial commitments.
Looking ahead, we continue to innovate in our environmental stewardship efforts. We use a great deal of energy charging the batteries we produce, so we just embarked on an Energy Efficiency Program to work toward reducing our energy use by more than 10 percent over the next ten years. It's a collaborative program with the federal government, and it’s one more way we are hoping to improve our impact.
Conclusion
All of the choices we’ve made over the years to limit our impact on the environment and create a truly sustainable product speak to our bigger commitment to building a long-term, sustainable business. But for us, sustainability means more than environmental stewardship. It means reinvestment back into the business. It means proper health and safety procedures to protect our employees. It means providing health insurance for our employees and their families. It means continual innovation. It means taking reasonable risks to grow the business. It means building a strong culture that upholds towards our employees, our customers, and our community.
All of these steps toward sustainability continue to reflect our founder’s common-sense approach. DeLight used to say to me all the time, “Pruitt, it's not one big thing. It's a million little things that make a business tick every day, and it's those million little things that are important because they add up to the big thing of sustainability. That's our why.”
Chris Pruitt is CEO and President of East Penn Manufacturing
Be Brave
Ingrid Carney, Founder and CEO of Ingrid & Isabel, a maternity essentials company, never considered bravery a defining characteristic of her life or her business journey. But now, as she shares in this talk from Tugboat Institute Summit 2020, 20 years after founding her Evergreen business as a new mother, Ingrid has a different view. As she reflects on the many small and big moments of motherhood and entrepreneurship that have led to success and personal growth, she is able to see the through line of bravery in her story and encourages other leaders to do the same.
Evergreen Perspective On 2020
Dear Evergreen Journal Readers,
The start of a new year traditionally offers both opportunity for reflection and anticipation, and—despite all the ways in which 2020 was unprecedented—this year is no different. At Tugboat Institute, as we look ahead to 2021, we’re ready to embrace the hope that the prospect of a COVID-19 vaccine brings and move forward to continue to support Evergreen® leaders, and we’re also incredibly grateful to reflect on the lessons and perspective of our community.
The experience of Tugboat Institute member-companies in 2020 has varied widely, reflecting the broad range of industries and geographies in our CEO tribe. In spite of the pandemic, some Evergreen businesses had an incredibly successful year; in other cases, leaders faced stunningly fast and steep revenue drops and heartbreaking layoffs in response.
Almost all members pushed through exhaustion and decision fatigue at some point, managing personal and family challenges at the same time. Across these experiences, the Evergreen 7Ps™ principles have continued to serve as a through line—guiding lights for Tugboat Institute members and companies. The myriad inspiring stories of perseverance, adaption, and care in this unprecedented year could fill a book, but there are a few that stand out as I reflect on our community.
Like so many Evergreen leaders, Scott Evans, CEO of Kenmore Envelope, saw the opportunity to make a difference and serve his community through the pandemic. Having been deemed an essential business as a result of the company’s relationship with the US Postal service, Kenmore continued to operate as many other businesses faced shutdown last spring. With a deep sense of responsibility to use the company’s capabilities and team for good, Scott determined the business could use existing equipment to produce PPE for frontline workers. In mid-April, Kenmore began distributing face shields to community hospitals and healthcare providers in the Richmond, Virginia area. Kenmore is one company among many Evergreen businesses that has displayed People First principles and a commitment to community in 2020.
The events industry has been among the hardest hit by the pandemic, with in-person gatherings almost completely shut down immediately last March. And yet, at Hello! Destination Management President Paul Mears saw opportunity to adapt and step into a new arena in this time. For several years, Paul had been tracking a struggling company with significant outside funding, which, in his view, had developed a wonderful capability that was mispositioned in the market. As COVID-19 shut down his core business, he quietly did his homework by testing a different value proposition with his existing customers—and found significant interest. Based upon those insights, he acquired the company, extending Hello! DMC’s service offerings into the virtual and local domains and giving the team an exciting new growth vector.
Grossman Company Properties, a second-generation real estate investment and management company, with a primary focus on hospitality, owns and operates nine hotels. John Grossman, President of the Evergreen business, saw revenues in the hospitality drop by 85 percent across the board last spring, as the floor fell out of the industry in a matter of days. The company initiated furloughs as they saw occupancy rates fall across their properties, which was incredibly difficult given their commitment to People First. However, Private ownership and management allowed for flexibility and creativity in reorganizing staffing to manage the properties. In addition, as John shared in The Evergreen Experience 2020™, the company’s long-term, conservative approach to debt—another characteristic of Evergreen companies—was essential in weathering the storm.
Choosing just three examples here was not easy. So many Evergreen leaders have shown extraordinary grit, compassion, and character in 2020, continually making decisions to align their companies’ actions with their core values and to care for their teams while confronting extraordinary challenges.
Looking ahead, Evergreen businesses will need to continue to adapt and plan for what remains an uncertain future in many ways. But these leaders and their teams have a competitive advantage in this time: they are committed to delivering on their Purpose for the long term. With new innovations and stronger teams forged in this moment, I know these companies will continue to grow, thrive, and make a difference in the world.
Dave Whorton is the Founder and CEO of Tugboat Institute.
Transforming Luck Companies through Values, Leadership, and Process
Dr. Tom Epperson serves as President of InnerWill Leadership Institute, which works with companies to navigate challenge and achieve success through values-based leadership.
In this presentation from Tugboat Institute Summit 2020, Tom shares the origin story of InnerWill, offering insight into the transformation of the family-owned Luck Companies, and describes the process and impact of integrating and operationalizing values-based leadership.
Competitive Wages, Employee Lounge with a View, Free Food, Community Spirit: How This Grocery Store Built a Winning Team
As an independent, locally owned grocery store, our Purpose at Jackson Whole Grocer is to bring community together through food. Our alignment with Evergreen® principles sets us apart in our industry, and we’re proud of the programs and practices that keep that Purpose front and center in our business, our town, and our region.
I didn’t start out in the grocery business. I spent my early career in sales and then founded and acquired several businesses before purchasing an existing family-owned grocery store in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. I had been seeking a new business opportunity that would keep me close to my family after years of work that required a pretty relentless pattern of planes, trains, and automobiles. I wanted to do something in my community—and for my community.
Beyond a love for food—my wife and I are passionate natural foodies—I knew nothing about the grocery industry when I learned the business was for sale. But I saw the opportunity to dig into something that had enough size and scale to be interesting, with close ties to the community we loved.
Ten years later, the number of employees and revenue have doubled, and the business has become a community hub. As we grow, we keep the focus on People First front and center. We are committed to impacting our employees and our community members in a positive way.
Here are some of the Evergreen approaches to meeting that goal that set us apart:
Compensation that Works Toward Bridging the Gap
One of our core values is to provide our people a great place to work. To me, at a basic level, that means providing competitive compensation and benefits. Last year, we raised wages 16 percent, which is big in any business and it's certainly big in ours. But we recognize that to support individuals and families facing the high cost of living in our community, that investment, while extending our ROI timeline, is essential and the right thing to do.
One of the key drivers in this decision was the extraordinary dynamic going on in terms of affordable housing our area. The average cost of a single-family home in Jackson is $2.6 million. We have an extreme housing shortage problem. It’s not uncommon for some of our employees to be paying 50 to 70 percent of their pay in housing costs. Working through this challenge will require a multi-faceted approach, but raising wages is a first and important step we can take in taking care of our people. We can’t close the gap, but we are doing what we can to help build a bridge.
Room with a View
In many big box grocery stores, the employee break room is in the basement or a windowless back storeroom—it’s an afterthought. We took a different approach. Visitors come to our area from all over the world to enjoy the natural beauty of this landscape. We think our employees should be enjoying it too. We designed the break room to be on the second floor, next to my office, featuring huge windows with a view of the Snake River Mountain Range, lots of natural light, comfortable furniture, and a kitchen. I want our people to come in, sit down, relax, and enjoy their break. It may be a small thing, but it can make a big difference in the quality of a person’s work life.
Feeding Our Work Family First
In that same break room, we installed shelving and a large refrigerator to offer our people “culls,” food that we can’t sell because it might be just past an expiration date or bruised in some way (think a browning banana or a dented can of beans). It’s a mini market of sorts, where everything is free. These foods are still perfectly edible, but they can’t be sold. Many grocery stores don’t offer culls to their employees for fear that it promotes theft. Instead, they donate it all to local food banks or nonprofits, or worse, it gets sent to the landfill.
We take a different view. We know the cost of living is high in our community, and we feel a responsibility to feed our work family first, then donate the rest our community food rescue program. Our employees leave work with bags of free food, and we’re grateful to be able to provide that benefit.
Community Giving
Like many grocery stores, as you might imagine, we receive a lot of requests for donations—from trays of cookies or bananas for a fun run to much larger asks. We have over 250 nonprofits operating in our community, and everyone has a cause.
About three years ago, after giving for years to a wide variety of organizations, I recognized that in our affluent resort community, much of the support for nonprofits was being directed to environmental and wildlife organizations. I’m a huge supporter of many of these groups and always will be, but I felt that there was an opportunity to focus on “people”, which is more aligned with our purpose.
I decided to turn my focus to helping people, and I partnered with a local organization called System of Care, which coordinates giving to about 35 health and human services organizations in our community, ranging from a community counseling center, to youth and family services, to addiction, domestic violence and wellness programs. We created several in-house programs to generate donations for System of Care, from a “round-up” option that provides customers the opportunity to donate at the time of their purchase, to selling donated artwork on the walls of our café.
This effort has allowed us to become a conduit for the community to give back. It's not just Jackson Whole Grocer writing checks, it's us as a community working together to help one another. It’s incredibly fulfilling to give back and support a lot of these organizations that provide vital services and support to our neighbors and care for our entire community. You'll never go wrong with the focus on people.
At the end of the day, the grocery business is about people—feeding people, providing good jobs for our employees, and serving as a gathering place for our community. We intend to keep working to put People First, in our store and in our community.
Jeff Rice is CEO of Jackson Whole Grocer.