Great Lakes Dental Technologies has been a fixture in the orthodontic and dental lab industry for decades, since long before I joined as President & CEO in 2022. And, I’d venture to say, it has been Evergreen® since its founding in 1967. Our co-founders’ commitment to our industry and their staff led them to sell the company to the employees, creating a 100% Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP) in 1990. Great Lakes is an industry leader, and a wonderful community in itself; for all these reasons, when the opportunity to join the team was presented to me, I jumped at the chance. It matched my desire to transition away from companies that were building to sell. Some of them were great companies, but something was missing for me without the long-term, Evergreen mindset. However, just because a company is already Evergreen doesn’t mean it’s perfect, or right where it needs to be.

Great Lakes has a simple vision statement: “Delight our customers. Respect and help our co-workers.” I love the simplicity of that, and I never want to change it. It’s so straightforward and effective. The great company culture and long-term decision-making created strong employee loyalty, with some employees staying over 46 years. However, despite being deeply grounded in strong values, the company has seen the development of some poor habits over time. While longevity and culture are strengths, they can also lead to complacency if not paired with ongoing discipline and intentional efforts to continually align values with specific, teachable behaviors.