John Torinus sure thinks so. He’s the current Chairman and former CEO of Serigraph, a one thousand employee custom graphics manufacturer in West Bend, Wisconsin. In 2004, John began a successful mission to drive down the cost of health care at Serigraph – for his employees and the company – and even wrote a book about it named The Company That Solved Health Care. I’ve become a big fan.

If you run a company or are charged in some way with managing the health insurance plans, this book is for you. Serigraph has kept its costs virtually flat over the last ten years by following several key principles.

An Old List

“If you are walking, you are doing it wrong!” I read the words on a stained dog-eared piece of paper and could still hear Coach Dubach shouting across the practice field.

Ron Dubach was the linebackers coach for the Leo High School football team. There was never a time when it was okay to walk. When you went for a drink of water, you ran. When you moved from one station to another, you ran. When you went to get your injury taped by the trainer, yep, you ran.

It Helps To Catch A Break

Ask just about anyone that has had success in life or business how they did it and you’ll probably hear some of the following. It was due to hard work, or innovation and creativity. They diligently prepared and had laser-like focus on a plan. And they were surrounded by great people.

But, it’s been my experience that whatever mix of attributes and planning are mentioned, they always finish with something like this:

A Lot Of Effort And Hard Work
Is work ethic becoming passé? It seems much of today’s “leading” business thinking focuses only on working smarter not harder.

Well, one person determined to keep “work ethic” alive is William “Bill” Kennedy. He’s the owner and leader, of Hartson-Kennedy Cabinet Top Company, in Marion, Indiana.

Kennedy, 90, is still very involved with the day-to-day operations of the company he co-founded with his father-in-law in 1948. Sure he’s slowed down a bit in recent years, “only” coming into work from 11:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m., but I bet he could tell you, down to the dollar, what his payables and receivables are for the week.

When I asked about how he’s survived and prospered all these years, Kennedy said so many companies make things way too complicated. “I’ve kept it simple”, he said. “You got your account receivables and you got your payables. What’s left is what you have to work with. You have to watch it every day!”

March Madness
Down by one point with 2.1 seconds remaining, Grant Hill threw a 75-foot pass to Christian Laettner. He dribbled once, turned around and shot. Swish. Duke 104, Kentucky 103.

If you’re a fan of college basketball then you likely remember the 1992 NCAA regional championship game between Duke and Kentucky. It’s widely regarded as one of the greatest college basketball games ever.

At Gibson, March Madness typically comes the second week of the month when we hold our Human Capital Summit (HCS) for area employers. We put on several major seminars for employers throughout the year, but the HCS is our largest event.

Have you ever written an email, text or letter, or made a Facebook post that you wish you could get back? The funny thing is you knew better before you sent it, didn’t you? I repeated this mistake recently.

It’s been twenty years since I graduated from high school. I went to a small public school with about 100 students in my grade. My class is getting together this July in Fort Wayne, Indiana, and I’ve been helping the reunion planning committee. Turns out the party is getting bigger every day. So much so, that we’ve outgrown the restaurant originally selected by our committee and are moving it to a larger place.

We were required to pay $200 to the original location to reserve a meeting room. A few weeks ago, we canceled our reservation, giving them 4 ½ months of advance warning. Unfortunately the general manager of said establishment is refusing to return the deposit money unless he is able to rent the room above his bar & grille to someone else.

This didn’t sit right with me. I told the committee member who had personally fronted the money not to worry. I would straighten this out.

Establish Your Franchise

Very Honored

We got some great news last week. Gibson has been named a “2013 Best Places to Work in Indiana” company. This is a big honor for us, as it’s a reflection of our incredible team of professionals at Gibson. They are hard-working, collaborative, optimistic, fun and client-centered folks. I’m lucky to work alongside such great people.

Honestly, we weren’t sure if we would achieve this award. We have applied for it on two other occasions and were close, but unsuccessful.

On the previous failed attempts, we decided it had to do with applying for the award during the economic downturn. After all in November 2008, we had the first and only reduction in force experienced by our organization in our 80-year history. Yet… other firms obviously won during those years.

Then we told ourselves (because it appeared that more of the winning firms are headquartered in Indianapolis) that it probably had something to do with being located in northern Indiana. Except, geography is not part of the selection process.

The truth was we needed to make some subtle, but important changes. We had been a really good company (and pridefully I thought a great place to work) for a long, long time, but realized we could become better.

Core Values

As part of my series on executive level topics, I’ll be interviewing business leaders from time-to-time and including their stories in my posts. Today, I’m covering the importance of having a hiring and development process to ensure you select and retain the best people. I’ve included insights from a conversation I had with Amish Shah, President/CEO of Kem Krest, a supply chain management company based in Elkhart, Indiana.

At Gibson, Talent Wins The Game is one of our Core Values. To us that means we want our clients, our fellow colleagues, and even our communities to know that we value our people. That belief is also an internal reminder to our management that while having a great coach is important, I’ve not seen too many win without great talent. And as Amish’s story reveals, it can make or break your business.

Flowers

You couldn’t help but notice the huge bouquet of roses on her desk. “So who got you the flowers for Valentine’s Day?” I asked. She was a salesperson just like me and we had become pretty good friends since starting at the company a few years prior. “None of your business! He’s just a friend. Well, maybe more than a friend!” she replied. “You have a secret admirer, don’t you!” I exclaimed. She nodded happily but still wouldn’t say who it was.

Not long after, I was promoted to my first real management job. After being friends with a number of my fellow salespeople, I suddenly found myself in charge at age 27. On a daily basis, I was learning about behaviors and outlooks that were normal and even acceptable as an “employee” but no longer as part of the management team.

One night I ran into the co-worker mentioned above, now a direct report, and to my surprise she was with a client of hers. The secret admirer was secret no longer. In fact I knew this CFO well (I’ll call him Mark). He was very driven and looking for a different career path. He had actually expressed an interest in joining our firm in a sales role.