Celebrating Five Years of Bringing Evergreen® Teams Together
Last week, we hosted our fifth annual Tugboat Institute® Gathering of Teams in Nashville, Tennessee. Many teams were in attendance for the fourth or even fifth time, and for them, it was an opportunity to reconnect with old friends, make new ones, and to continue to learn from the wisdom, best practices and hard-earned mistakes of other Evergreen companies across industries, sizes, geographies, business models and generations. For those teams that joined us for the first time, it was wonderful to observe their earnest engagement and their realization that they are not alone building and leading their companies – in alignment with the Evergreen 7Ps® principles.
Through both structured and unstructured conversations, attendees connected, learned, explored, and celebrated. At the center of the event, we all came together for five TED-style talks. We were treated to wisdom from one Tugboat member and one former member, as well as three distinguished thought leaders.
Robert Pasin is the third generation Chief Wagon Officer of the company his grandfather started and that you have likely known since childhood: Radio Flyer. When Robert stepped into the company at the age of 23, he quickly learned a lesson about the vulnerability of third generation businesses. An established success, whether it be a product or a service, can only carry you so far. The world keeps changing, and if your company does not change with it, decline is inevitable. He set to work reviving Radio Flyer through several Pragmatic Innovation approaches, ones that not only guided them out of the danger zone but, he shared, that have become the backbone of their ongoing product successes.
Our second speaker, Oliver Staehelin, was inspired early in his career to become a student of company culture when challenged by CEO Rich Fairbanks on his first day on the job at Capital One. Graduating from business school, Oliver co-founded a culture assessment company with Stanford Professor Charles O’Reilly. Professor O’Reilly’s research revealed the importance of a strong culture, defined as a company where the behaviors and norms of the company are clearly understood and honored at all levels of the organization. Oliver spoke to the competitive advantages of having a strong culture, especially in the context of very tight labor markets for decades to come.
We were honored that Dr. Robert I. Sutton, Stanford professor and author of many books including the renowned The No Asshole Rule, was able to join us just a week after the release of his newest book, The Friction Project. He shared the findings that he and his co-author, Huggy Rao, present in their new book about friction in the workplace. Human psychology is such that we tend to think of improvement and progress in terms of addition – we constantly look to add something new as we seek to move forward. However, sometimes it is more effective and important to remove something old, whether it be a product, process and/or program, in order to optimize overall performance and work satisfaction.
Our fourth speaker was Kelly D. Parker, a former marketing executive who has become fascinated by the power of storytelling. She now runs her own consulting firm and helps businesses and leaders discover the power of a well-told story to a clearly defined audience. Kelly shared her simple but powerful framework that can make a storyteller of all of us. As leaders of Purpose-driven companies, this is critical in internal and external communications.
Finally, we were thrilled to welcome Peter Zeihan to our stage. Peter is a renowned geopolitical scientist and is the author of many best-selling books including The Accidental Superpower, The Absent Superpower, and, more recently, The End of the World is Just the Beginning: Mapping the Collapse of Globalization. In an astoundingly far-ranging look at the global factors that will shape the coming decades, Peter shared why globalization is ending, and the impacts that will have on all countries and ultimately our businesses and lives. He foresees some uncomfortable realities ahead, but also acknowledges that the United States, Mexico, and Canada will be some of the best positioned regions to adapts to this change. In a provocative and engrossing talk, he gave us an enormous amount to think about, and left us all processing how we may have to adapt to a new world that could be far different from the one we all grew up in.
We are happy to be able to share these talks through our Evergreen Journal® in the coming months, so please keep an eye out for their release.
It’s been half a decade now that we have been bringing together Evergreen leadership teams to meet, learn, grow, and be inspired. Whenever Evergreen leaders gather, something special happens, but this event takes it to the next level. By inviting leadership teams and family members to immerse themselves in the Evergreen 7Ps principles, and to connect with other leaders working in similarly values-driven companies, the understanding of what it means to lead, grow, and adapt one’s Evergreen company seeps deeper into the fabric of each company. It is obviously important that a CEO or president anchor themselves in this thinking and commit to the Evergreen principles if they hope to build a wonderful company that will last for 100 years or more, but it can accelerate when the whole leadership team and company owners share in this vision and key practices. Tugboat Institute Gathering of Teams has become the unique place where that work can happen. To see how this community of teams has progressed in just five years is gratifying. Above all else, it confirms to all of us that we are onto something important. As we gain strength from one another, so grows our certainty that Evergreen companies can and will impact the world in positive ways for many, many decades, if not centuries, to come.
Flickr Foundation: Planning for 100 Years
Ben and Don MacAskill are the founders and CEO & President of Awesome, the company that owns SmugMug and Flickr, among other brands. They specialize in online tools and platforms for photography and have changed the way photographers store, share, and sell their work. A few years ago, when they purchased Flickr from Yahoo, they discovered something unexpected.
In this Tugboat Institute® talk, Ben explains that he and Don were aware, of course, that Flickr owned and stored tens of billions of photos. But they soon also discovered that galleries, museums, and archives all over the world had also uploaded tens of millions of rare, unique, and historic photos. The power and impact of the collection struck them as important and absolutely unique, so they created a plan to ensure that these historic images never got lost to humanity. They created the Flickr Foundation. As they build the structure of this Foundation that is still only about a year old, they are focused on the goal of not just preserving the collection, but preserving it for the long term.
Watch and be inspired by this ambitious and generous initiative.
Enhanced Value to Your Evergreen® Business Through Effective Social Media Posting
In today's digital age, social media is not simply an option for a company; it’s a strategic imperative. As CEO of BSI Corporate Benefits, LLC (BSI), and as someone who discovered it as an adult, I have had to work to evolve my relationship with social media. One of the first tensions I experienced was how to best manage the intersection of my professional and personal online presence. It’s an ongoing journey, but so far, I have learned those two identities are not, in fact, as separate as I might have imagined. Today, I have landed in a place where social media, primarily LinkedIn for now, has become a productive tool that adds value to my business.
My story is not the story of an expert who has completely mastered social media as a business tool. I am connected with approximately 3,500 individuals on LinkedIn, along with a moderate number of followers and typically average 1,000-5,000 views of my posts, with “likes” typically in the 50 to 200 range, so I consider myself an active user, but by no means an influencer. Nevertheless, I have spent time thinking about how and why social media could be an important tool for me and for BSI, and I have landed in a place where it feels like it is effective and worth my time.
I was taught to practice the Three E’s – Educate, Entertain, Enlighten. I played with that for a while, but to be honest, the only content I created that really felt right was content where I could be my genuine self, no matter which “E” I sought to achieve. So I learned my first lesson of social media: the best and truest content I can offer is content in which I can be my authentic self. For others, it might be different, but for me, this is absolute.
Next, I had to understand how my personal online presence might intersect, if at all, with my professional one. As CEO of BSI, I have determined that the answer to this question varies widely from CEO to CEO, depending on yourself, your company, your relationship with your company, and your values. As an Evergreen leader, the business I have built is so deeply rooted in my values that ultimately, there is no discernible difference between who I am as CEO and who I am as a person. This may be different for leaders of different kinds of companies, but I have to imagine that for most Evergreen leaders, this is true. Second, the type of business you are running surely helps determine the degree to which mixing your personal and professional online identities is effective and appropriate. In businesses where information and expertise are the product, the mandate must clearly be to provide information that your followers can’t get elsewhere. Perhaps a business leader’s personal story has less of a place in that type of company’s feed? But BSI is a people business. We manage corporate benefit packages for our clients, and we are only as good as our team and the relationships we create and maintain with our clients. As CEO, I am a team member and the team’s loudest champion. So yes, my personal voice absolutely has a place in the conversation taking place on social media.
Having settled all that, what do I post on my personal feed? I see it as my duty to use my platform to tell BSI's story and promote the principles and pillars that align with our organization's values. This includes championing the importance of placing people at the center of the business and being a force for good in our community. A significant aspect of my LinkedIn activity, therefore, revolves around celebrating individuals, milestones, and community initiatives within BSI. I believe in creating a workplace where employees are not only seen and heard but also recognized and celebrated for their achievements. Making this part of my own personal story boosts morale within the company and communicates to the outside world the degree to which BSI values its people.
Early on, I had some hesitations about celebrating my excellent team so publicly. Wasn’t that just inviting the competition to come and try to steal them away? I have come to realize, however, that in today's digital landscape, talented individuals are sought after by recruiters every day. If our fantastic team members want a new opportunity, they won’t have any trouble finding it. But by acknowledging and promoting their successes, I hope to reinforce a sense of belonging within BSI and communicate how much they are valued, so they don’t want to leave. Sharing how well we regard our team also communicates to the world that BSI is a great place to work and can help attract top talent to the company.
Looking beyond the team, I have come to understand that social media can be a fantastic tool for community building. I understand that while there are various types of users on social media, forming connections, even with those who may not be actively participating, can have a profound impact. My active engagement on LinkedIn has helped me establish meaningful relationships with professionals I would not otherwise have met, especially those within my industry and within Tugboat Institute®’s membership. Growing my network in this way reinforces a sense of community that extends beyond online interactions. When I arrive at a Tugboat experience, for example, and meet some of my peers for the first time in person, I already have a fairly strong sense of who they are and what they value, so we can skip over the formalities and introductions and make the most of the limited time we have together.
Finally, my journey on social media includes the pursuit of thought leadership. I know how much wisdom I encounter on the feeds of people I know and respect, and I aim to give back. My goal is to contribute meaningfully to the broader conversation within our industry and community. I used to suffer from some imposter syndrome when it came to seeing myself as a thought leader, but now I understand that being a thought leader isn’t about immediate perfection as much as a consistent commitment to sharing valuable ideas.
As for my efforts on social media – primarily on LinkedIn – and how much value they have added to BSI, this is also a work in progress. We are not yet experts on SEO and using our data to optimize our impact through this channel. However, our marketing team does track various metrics related to our social media efforts, including follower growth, engagement, and activity compared to competitors. By analyzing these metrics, we can begin to gauge the impact of our social media strategy. We have seen improvements over time! Additionally, our social media presence has led to warmer leads and prospects who are already familiar with BSI's values and culture. This means that initial outreach becomes more of a conversation about shared values and goals rather than a cold sales pitch. This gives us a clear strategic advantage and improves the experience and confidence of potential clients. As a result, we are more likely to win their business, and they feel a sense of pride being associated with a company that has a clear grounding in purpose and stands as a force for good in the community.
As my social media journey continues, I remain dedicated to my goals of celebrating our team, nurturing a positive company culture, and promoting BSI's purpose with Evergreen content. Our success thus far underscores the importance of authenticity, community engagement, and purposeful personal branding in not only enhancing a company's brand, but also by fostering a thriving organizational culture.
The Time Strategist
Dr. Peter Boumgarden is a professor at the WashU Olin Business School. His research focuses on the role of structure- both formally and informally- in shaping the innovation of groups, organizations, and broader network systems. In addition to or perhaps as a byproduct of this work, he has also accumulated a wealth of wisdom about how individuals can be more effective and drive greater impact. Through his research as well as his work consulting and running executive education programs with organizations across sectors, he has developed a research-based set of recommendations for individuals seeking to make better use of their time.
In this Tugboat Institute® talk, Peter begins by sharing that an average lifetime contains just 4000 weeks. If we want to maximize our impact – on our companies, our families, and our communities – we need to be strategic about how we spend our time. But the bottom line is that we are all different, and we need to find a strategy that works for us. Peter gives us tools to better understand our own productivity, and to think about how we can best tackle the challenge of being more strategic with our limited time.
Watch and think more clearly about how you organize your time.
Taking Paired Programming to the Next Level
In the realm of software development, practices that foster collaboration, creativity, and code excellence are worth their weight in gold. One such practice, paired programming, has emerged as a transformative approach. Paired programming refers to a style of software development where two programmers share a single computer and develop together. It is not widespread in the programming industry, but it has started to catch on and become more common. At Menlo Innovations, we have not only embraced it, but elevated it to touch most aspects of our practice, our culture, and our thinking.
The roots of paired programming at Menlo Innovations trace back to my early career as a programmer, right out of college and then graduate school. In my early jobs, I loved the mental challenge of programming, but I found that I kept falling off cliffs in my projects. The teams I was part of kept missing deadlines and delivering poor quality, and the only ones who could fix the inevitable bugs were the programmers who originally wrote the problem code. This led to long nights for many of us. I became concerned that perhaps I wasn’t cut out for this profession. I decided there was something fundamentally wrong with the way the work was organized and I became determined to find a better way. I started reading books on systems thinking and organizational design.
Eventually, I came across a book called Extreme Programming Explained, by Kent Beck. He was a programmer who had faced similar challenges as me, and so he set out on a journey to try to understand why. He realized that in the most crucial moments in his work, which also stood out as some of the best, he often did something unusual – he called over another programmer to watch him work and help him talk through his process, to ensure he was avoiding mistakes. As programmers, we’ve all had those experiences here and there, but it’s not the norm. His idea was, if collaboration like that works well in moments of stress and high pressure, what if we worked that way all the time? The idea of paired programming was born.
At that point, in about 1999 or 2000, I wasn’t sure if this was just a theory or if anyone had started to practice it, but I can tell you that since that day, the teams I have led have practiced it continuously.
Outside of my personal fulfillment issues, what other problems did this solve? For one, it solved the Tower of Knowledge problem. When one person is writing code, no one else knows what they are doing or how they have worked their way through the build. If they are great, they might be a hero programmer, but this is impossible to scale. This often leads to bottlenecks, communication breakdowns, and limited knowledge sharing, as well as tired programmers pushing through a project, even if they are too exhausted to do their best work. This model hinders both individual growth and project outcomes.
Shifting to paired programming helped with all of the above. It has allowed us to scale, to produce more consistently good work, to innovate faster and more creatively, and to enjoy happier, more fulfilled employees.
In 2001, Menlo officially adopted paired programming as a core practice, transforming our landscape. Thanks to Beck’s work, paired programming is not unknown in our industry, but we have taken it to a new level. We pair programmers up every week, and then at the end of the week, we switch the pairs. Each person from the first week’s pairing has to bring their new partner up to speed on the project, or be brought up to speed, and thus the tower of knowledge is shattered. As they create together, they naturally share ideas and write different – and better– code than either one would have written alone. And one of them can go on vacation without causing the whole project to shut down!
Because we are an Evergreen® company, we are equally interested in workplace culture and the employee experience. The impact of our paired work has happily extended far beyond its initial anticipated benefits. Teams working in pairs naturally cultivated mentorship dynamics, with senior developers guiding their junior counterparts. The continuous exchange of ideas sparked innovative solutions that solo work might not have uncovered.
Beyond programming, we have found that paired work is effective at nearly all levels within the company. Our tech people and our quality assurance people all work in pairs. Project managers are a little more loosely coupled, but they do work together. And then in areas like payroll, accounting, and tax preparation, we use pairing strategically, rather than every minute of every day. This extends into leadership; my co-Founder James and I are CEO and COO and we are absolutely paired. We sit next to each other every day, right in the same room as everyone else, and the team expects to see that from us. It’s just who we are at Menlo.
The company's office space itself reflects our ethos. With no cubicles and an open workspace design, developers sit side by side, working on a single screen. This encourages constant interaction, the sharing of insights, and immediate problem-solving.
Pairing has worked so well and become so fundamental to who we are that we have extended the practice into the recruiting and interviewing processes. Prospective employees are paired during interviews, working together on tasks together. We watch them work together and then switch the pairs up every 20 minutes. We instruct them that their job is to ensure that their partner gets a next interview. It’s unusual, and some people don’t like it; this culture is not for everyone. But we find out right away, as this practice provides firsthand experience of Menlo's collaborative environment and ensures that new hires are being taught the company's values from day one.
As technology continues to evolve, and as new methodologies emerge, one lesson remains clear: the greatest solutions often arise when brilliant minds come together, bridging gaps, and creating pathways to success. Menlo's journey with paired programming is a wonderful example of this, reminding us that the future of development is collaborative, innovative, and unlimited in its potential.
How to ENERGIZE Your Life
Dr. Allan Mishra is a leading orthopedic surgeon, an expert in stem-cell research, and a highly respected member of the team at Stanford University Medical Center. He is also the Founder of VyVerse, LLC, through which his program, Vitality Explorers, reaches a growing number of people. Dr. Mishra is deeply interested in human vitality, and in unlocking the keys to living a more vital and energized life.
In this Tugboat Institute® talk, Dr. Mishra shares his expertise on vitality and helps us understand how and why we should seek to move from exhaustion to energy. Our modern world provides many reasons to feel depleted and tired, but by posing a few simple, pointed questions and sharing research on a few fundamental keys to an energetic boost, Dr. Mishra gives us some tools to improve our energy and, thereby, our lives.
Watch and take steps to become more vital and energize your life.
Uniting in Evergreen Values
Dear Friend of Tugboat Institute®,
Coming off several very difficult years filled with unexpected challenges and unforeseeable obstacles post-COVID, our members largely saw a more predictable business environment in 2023. Supply chain woes improved, hiring, while still challenging, became possible again in many industries, and inflation has started to cool. Not all businesses weathered this chaos as well as Evergreen® businesses; because of our discipline and long-term mindset, most of our members not only survived the recent wild ride, but in most cases, capitalized on opportunities it presented. It was a year that confirmed the strong position of the Evergreen company in an ever-changing world.
Outside of the business world, on the other hand, 2023 saw a rise in conflict and discord worldwide. From the tense national political climate to the terrible, tragic conflicts overseas, the things that separate us can often overshadow those that unite us, as Americans and as humans. This is a terrible shame.
Here at Tugboat Institute, we are of course neither unaware of nor indifferent to this reality. It affects us, it affects our members, and it is devastatingly sad. As an organization, we firmly condemn violence, hate, terrorism, and prejudice in all forms. However, in the face of all this distress and conflict, and heading into another tough presidential election year in 2024, we have taken the opportunity to re-examine and update our Member Pledge. Among other things, it includes a commitment to refraining from introducing contentious political topics into our community that could polarize our members. We are not putting our heads in the sand. Rather, we are re-iterating our stance, established at our founding ten years ago, to support each and every one of our members in their Evergreen company journeys, and focus on what unites us, which far outweighs whatever may divide us.
At the end of 2023, our membership includes 265 Evergreen companies, spans 25 major industries, draws from Mexico, Canada, and 36 states in the US, includes a variety of ownership structures, and includes businesses with revenues from $6M to $26B. This represents an incredible range of companies. How do we find strength and common cause amid such a range?
First of all, despite these differences, Tugboat members all share the burden and privilege of leadership. They share the responsibility of stewarding, building, protecting, and growing an organization on which many others depend. As such, they can find and have found myriad ways to learn from and support each other. I have sat at dinner at one of our events and participated in a conversation between a second-generation leader of a well-established company and a founder struggling to make the leap across no-man’s land and to imagine how their company makes it from ten years to 100. Not only did the former have helpful and relevant advice for the latter in that moment, but they also made the commitment to stay in touch and engage in conversation on an ongoing basis, to ensure that the founder had the support they needed to persevere. I have watched a group of members from completely different industries who simply happen to live in the same geographical area, greet their forum-mates at an event and reference the personal and professional challenges they have helped each other face and surmount. And I have hosted Tugboat Seminars and Tugboat Talks where members at one stage of their professional careers have shared invaluable advice, perspective, and wisdom with their peers who, no matter where they are in their own leadership journey, can find something to take away and bring back to their companies and lives.
Secondly, beyond the shared leadership that unites our members, we are inextricably and powerfully connected through our shared belief in the Evergreen 7Ps® principles. Evergreen leaders don’t think like other leaders, who might be building toward a quick exit or trying to maximize growth at all costs, to make the quarter, or to achieve an IPO. Evergreen leaders share a long-term mindset, they share a deep belief in purpose, and they share the conviction that the best path to being successful in business is by treating people well and focusing on doing the right thing today and in the future. The profits that follow, and that are of course very important, are the powerful tool through which they can continue to effect change and increase their positive impact on the world. Shareholder wealth generation is not the ultimate goal, but rather a natural byproduct of the long-term compounding of retained capital in the business.
Among our members, we are privileged to include men and women of a variety of races and religions, with a variety of educational and cultural backgrounds, and with life experiences that vary in profound and important ways. Yet we have never for a second seen this variety as anything but an strength. By committing to keeping divisive topics out of Tugboat, we are not turning a blind eye. Tugboat is a community that is grounded in trust, in our shared Evergreen company values, in our shared humanity, and in our shared belief that we have much more in common than not. What makes us special is our ability to share, listen, and learn from each other with authentic curiosity and without judgment, which takes intentional practice. We recognize that good lives inside each of us, and that when we help each other make our Evergreen companies more mature and stronger, it benefits all of the employees, customers, suppliers, families, owners, and communities touched by our peers and us.
Thank you for supporting this incredible, trusted community, and I wish you, and our world, peace and prosperity in 2024.
Warmly,
Dave Whorton
CEO & Founder of Tugboat Institute
Navigating the Regulatory Landscape
California stands as both a land of opportunity and a labyrinth of regulations. Companies operating within the state must grapple with an intricate web of rules governing everything from labor practices to environmental standards. Betts Company has existed in California since 1868, when my great-great-great-grandfather, William Betts, founded the company in San Francisco. Today, the company has diversified and grown a great deal. Still based in California, we compete against companies all over the country, many of whom exist in an environment that is far less regulated than ours. Yet we are an industry leader.
Labor laws in California are far more stringent than most of the country. While labor laws were initially intended to protect employees, California’s current labor laws pose significant hurdles to businesses statewide. The Private Attorneys General Act (PAGA) is a good example of this. PAGA authorizes employees to file civil lawsuits on behalf of not just themselves, but also on the behalf of their coworkers for State of California Labor Code violations which penalizes the employer. The main problem with laws like these is that they assume ill intent on the part of employers. They are susceptible to abuse and can become punitively expensive for businesses across industries. Further, they shift and evolve frequently, which requires constant attention and policy adjustments on the employer’s side, which is also expensive. Navigating complex labor laws, ensuring compliance with meal and rest breaks, accurate pay stubs, and addressing new mandates like California's paid sick leave are daily concerns.
In addition to labor laws and regulations, California is among the most regulated states when it comes to environmental issues, and specifically, emissions. Here again the initial intention was laudable: to ensure that we respect and protect our natural environment. One example is the recent regulations created by California Air Resource Board (CARB) that are affecting the heavy-duty truck industry. But since California is often the first to mandate certain reforms and new policies, it is up to the businesses in the state to scramble to adjust to them continually.
How do we, at Betts, manage to thrive and remain competitive in such an environment? In several ways. First, we are a Certified Evergreen® company, and we believe in putting People First. As a baseline, therefore, we do a great deal to ensure that our employees are happy, fulfilled, and treated fairly, thus minimizing the cost of frivolous lawsuits brought through PAGA and similar regulations.
Second, we work cooperatively with many businesses in our industry and region to create and support systems and organizations that protect the rights of employees, but without putting the burden on employers. We founded, for example, the San Joaquin Valley Manufacturing Alliance, which aims to support the Valley’s $19.3B manufacturing industry by helping develop and train the workforce. We are also part of an organization called Heartland Compass, which provides resources for employees of employer partners. Heartland can help employees with all sorts of problems, including finding resources to pay for car repairs so they can get to work, finding the right advocates to start the process of seeking US citizenship, and securing a case manager and hospice care for an ailing parent. In this way, we are helping create a landscape where employees do have access to support and resources, making them less vulnerable and better able to stand on their own. In addition, the collective efforts of our business and our many co-collaborators stand as evidence that many businesses do care about employees and are willing to prioritize their safety, care, and wellbeing. We are working to redefine business as one of the good guys, not the villain.
A third and significant part of our work to improve the regulatory landscape is our contribution to a great many efforts to proactively advocate for Common Sense regulations and politics. My father, who is still Chairman of Betts, has taken on the role of primary steward and advocate for initiatives like PAGA reform and career tech education in California. Under his leadership, Betts Company has joined a broader coalition called the New California Coalition, representing businesses from various regions and industries. This coalition is united in its goal to create a common voice for businesses statewide, bridging the gap between government policymakers and localized businesses. The initiative aims to impact decision-makers at the state level and bring clarity to the regulatory challenges faced by companies of all sizes. The bottom line is that California needs good businesses, and therefore it is in everyone’s best interest to promote and enact reasonable and manageable regulations that will protect employees and the environment without driving companies out of state.
Finally, the most significant and fundamental way Betts remains competitive on the national stage despite the challenges imposed by the regulatory environment is by being excellent at what we do. We strive to outperform our competitors by offering superior quality and service. This shows up in several ways, starting with our commitment to investing in our equipment and technology. Betts Company continuously invests in cutting-edge equipment, improving efficiency and quality and allowing us to offer better products to our customers. We are also committed to innovation; we actively engage with customers to design and engineer solutions tailored to their needs. This sets us apart from competitors who may focus solely on production. We have historically and continue to maintain rigorous quality assurance standards, ensuring our products are top-notch and reliable, fostering customer trust. We’ve built a reputation for quality and reliability over the 155 years since our founding. And finally, while we compete nationally, Betts recognizes the importance of understanding local markets and tailoring our offerings accordingly.
As a final added bonus, the multi-generational nature of Betts Company plays a significant role in our success. As President, I oversee the day-to-day operations and the pursuit of excellence in manufacturing. My father, Mike Betts, with his wealth of experience and dedication to advocacy, spearheads the company's engagement with government and regulatory agencies. Having someone with such deep experience and knowledge of the industry landscape who can devote his time to this effort is an enormous advantage for us. In order to have similar success, another company might have to hire someone solely devoted to this effort, which would of course mean increased cost to and burden on the company.
At Betts, we remain committed to advocacy, innovation, and customer-centric excellence. We do not hold these values because of the regulatory landscape, but they are at the top of the list of reasons we succeed despite the often-challenging environment. Through collaboration with other businesses and organizations, and our deep commitment to being a Certified Evergreen company, Betts Company continues to work towards redefining business as a force for good and towards shaping a more positive business landscape, all while ensuring our competitive edge. We are proud of our multi-generational leadership as it provides a strong foundation for our ongoing success and commitment to positive change.
Building an Evergreen® Company in the Heart of Silicon Valley
Silicon Valley is known as the heartland of innovation in business, specifically venture capital and the ‘get big fast’ model of building a company toward a quick and lucrative exit. With its focus on growth over profit and its short-term time horizons, Silicon Valley's traditional business model is quite different from the Evergreen® model. It may, therefore, seem to be a strange place to choose to found and build an Evergreen company. Yet Mac Harman did just that when he launched Balsam Brands over ten years ago.
In this Tugboat Institute® talk, Mac shares how he not only resisted the pressures and norms of Silicon Valley, but how he was able to use them to his advantage. His combined personal, professional, and educational experiences taught him that he wanted to bootstrap his business rather than raise outside capital. However, he was able to glean some important pearls of wisdom from the standard Silicon Valley model and, paired with his own convictions and vision, build an industry-leading Evergreen company that continues to thrive - right where it started in Silicon Valley.
Watch and be inspired to take the Evergreen path, but leave space for relevant bits of wisdom from business leaders of all sorts.
Diversifying Your Team Starts with Culture
In the world of manufacturing, achieving or even approaching gender balance has historically been challenging. The physical work that it requires was once considered more appropriate for men, and though we now know that is not the case, it’s been a hard stereotype to dismantle. However, in recent years, here at Cambridge Air Solutions, we have managed to defy the odds and create a more balanced workforce. It happened partially on purpose and partially by accident, but as we look back and study the changes we’ve seen in recent years, we are now taking steps to intentionally preserve our progress. Above all else, we’ve learned that our success on this front is rooted in a deeply ingrained culture of respect, dignity, and inclusivity.
Cambridge Air Solutions is a purpose-driven, family-owned Evergreen® business. As the second-generation CEO of Cambridge, my personal passion is to restore glory and dignity in manufacturing. I believe deeply in that goal, but it’s lofty and the initial steps toward making it a reality are not necessarily obvious. Or they weren’t to me.
I started with the people at Cambridge and have spent the last 20 years or so, and especially in the decade since I became CEO, focused on helping us all get clearer about why we are in business; we are trying to do manufacturing a different way. Our core values are unconditional love with high expectations, care, courage, and respect. Over time, these have helped us develop a strong culture where the hard work of every single team member is honored and celebrated. It’s important to us that every person at Cambridge goes home winning at the end of every day, knowing that their work matters. Our focused insistence on this kind of relationship with our team and with the work they do has, over time, created a supportive, respectful, and positive workplace.
Although it seems obvious that a culture built on respect should make room for all sorts of people, we were not overtly focused on diversifying our workforce. However, during the pandemic, our VP of Human Resources, Meg Brown, noticed a change. Like the rest of our industry, we hovered around 5-7% female on our team. But during Covid, women started applying for positions ¬– not just on the office side, where the previous 5-7% sat, but also in manufacturing. All of a sudden, we were seeing around 15% women, more than double what it had been. Wanting to keep on this path, we mused about why this was happening and what was motivating these women to apply, and then decided, “We should probably ask them!”
In conversations with these new recruits, it became clear that the company's culture played a pivotal role. Here are some of the things they told us; “It just felt really welcoming,” “I’ve never really worked with tools, but none of the men around me treated me like I couldn’t. They believed I could.” “Because no one treated me like I was stupid, I started to ask questions, and I learned, and I started to feel capable.” As we listened to them, it struck us: this was the glory and dignity we had been working on for 20 years!
Since then, we have become much more intentional about supporting this evolution. We joined Women in Manufacturing (WIM) about nine months ago and recently hosted a tour for our local chapter. Wrapping up the tour was a panel of female Cambridge employees in front of a screen with their titles: Welder, Maintenance Tech, and Engineer. We inevitably got to the question: “Is it hard working here surrounded by so many men?” Our team members simply replied, “It’s not like that here.” It was powerful.
We experienced a moment recently that exemplifies the journey we’ve been on. We have daily rhythms, where the company goes through the numbers: revenue, safety, quality, delivery, etc. We also leave space for grateful appreciation. One of our wonderful female employees, Maddie, the abovementioned Maintenance Tech on our WIM tour, was moving to North Carolina and it was her last day. When it came time for grateful appreciation, a string of 15 or so people got up and expressed their appreciation for Maddie. They spoke of her great attitude, her energy, how she made every day fun for everyone. One of the older men who runs a punch machine got up and took the microphone. There were literally tears in his eyes and all he could say was, “Thank you.” Everybody lost it then, including Maddie. She got up to speak and said, through tears, “I was not this way at my old job. I was a real jerk.” In that moment, she gave credit to our culture, and our culture gave credit to her. It was an unforgettable day.
Cambridge's success in increasing gender diversity only represents a start, but we are proud of this progress. I attribute it to our strong people-first culture of dignity and respect. We know that that culture trumps strategy, and our experience with gender inclusivity stands as strong proof of that. We prioritize treating all employees as individuals and respecting their unique abilities, regardless of their gender.
This commitment to fostering a healthy and supportive culture extends beyond gender diversity. Following the same core beliefs, we have undertaken another new initiative – we are partnering with organizations like Boone Center Inc. (BCI) to embrace neurodiversity in our talent pool. As part of their program to integrate adults with disabilities into a work program, BCI operates the Skills Center, offering job training and placement services. These employees receive the same pay and respect as their non-neurodiverse colleagues. Our culture of respect and acceptance extends to these individuals, creating a harmonious and inclusive work environment.
By creating a workplace where everyone feels welcomed, included, and valued at Cambridge, we are working to continue our journey to improve our healthy culture. Attracting talented people from diverse backgrounds, experiences, communities, and groups helps us continue to live into our purpose of enriching lives. We are acting intentionally to evaluate structures, systems and methods so that we may continue to attract a diverse and talented workforce that will support our highest-level purpose – enriching lives.