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These two samples were written for Arthur Andersen's Portland office, and appeared with other text in a four-page insert to Oregon Business magazine. The first sample, an Introduction, established the context of the Enterprise Awards for Best Business Practices. Profiles of the four corporate winners followed. Included here is one.
Turning the Spotlight on Excellence
If it takes work to get the job done, it takes better work to get the job done better. For companies that make the extra effort, the rewards spread like sunshine, brightening morale, fueling personal growth, bearing financial fruit.
The people at Arthur Andersen knew a good thing when they saw it. Why not honor businesses for their successes at pursuing, creating and adopting best business practices?
Three years ago, Arthur Andersen debuted its Enterprise Awards for Best Business Practices. State winners move to a national review, and national winners are honored in the February edition of Fortune magazine.
For the first time last spring, Oregon's 150 largest private companies were invited to compete, says Marjory Morford, director of marketing with Arthur Andersen's Portland office. Companies could enter one of four categories. The categories, and this year's winners:
- Building Strategic Alliances: Collins Pine Company
- Motivating and Retaining Employees: Morse Brothers, Inc.
- Customer Satisfaction: Columbia Forest Products Inc.
- Going International: Entek Holdings LLC
The contest encourages companies to stop, step back and take a long look at their basic business processes, says Kit Johnson, Arthur Andersen's Portland director of enterprise consulting services.
Judges noted several common best practices: Promoting direct contact and response to customers, giving employees the power to solve problems and lead change, and sharing information about the company's mission, finances and markets with employees.
Winners shared their best practices during a seminar Oct. 10 at the Portland Hilton. It was a chance, Johnson said, for other attendees to learn, and to applaud the benefits of working not just harder -- but better.
"1997 Enterprise Awards for Best Business Practices"
1997 Enterprise Award for Motivating and Retaining Employees
Company name: Morse Bros., Inc.
City: Tangent, Oregon
Name of CEO: Frank Morse
Year Company Started: 1941
Number of Employees: 575
Type of business: Sand, gravel, rock, concrete, paving and highway construction.
Where Everyone Is a Leader
When you run a $95 million business built on sand, gravel and concrete, the safety of your workers is an obvious concern. In the mid-1980s, Morse Bros., Inc. chose not to replace its safety director when he moved on.
It was the beginning of an evolution within the company to creation in January 1990 of an education and training program, headed by Dan Abbott and enlisting every employee of the company in individual or team-based leadership roles. High levels of safety were just but one benefit.
The most recent benefit was the company's selection as the winner of the Arthur Andersen 1997 Enterprise Award for Motivating and Retaining Employees.
Chief Executive Officer Frank Morse, like other employees, takes an active role in training. He teaches the first two of the nine modules in the company's flagship Leadership MBI program. During those sessions, he says, he routinely asks workers if they think they can lead.
Workers? Lead? You bet, says Morse.
"Fundamentally, if you can't believe that, you're probably in the wrong place," he says. "We've tried to set the stage to redefine leadership. Old styles of management where management tries to control everthing, are inhibiting
At Morse Bros, Inc., inhibitions are out the door. Power has been pushed down to the troops. Pay for executives is only 4.8 times that of line employees. "Team members" are consulted -- in person and through internal surveys -- before development of everything from benefits to policies. Workers take an active role in hiring, coaching, purchasing and mentoring.
And in complementary fashion, the company takes an active role in supporting team members in their continuing education, by sharing financial information, and by rewarding performance with bonuses, prizes, public recognition and a share of the profits.
"I think the Leadership MBI training has done more to motivate and change people than anything we've done," Morse says. "I can see it, people assuming leadership who never would've considered it in the past."
Open-book policies, two-way communication, and structures that enlisted workers as mentors all ranked high in the minds of award judges, says Kit Johnson, Arthur Andersen's senior manager in charge of enterprise consulting and project manager for the awards.
He said Morse Bros., Inc. deserved particular praise for its Mentor Driver Program. Every year, drivers select one of their own to deliver the company's paid training program for drivers. Topics cover product knowledge, truck and equipment operation, and safety.
"The judges felt that it added credibility to the program," Johnson said.
Morse says Driver Mentors travel throughout North America, helping other companies set up similar programs. Executives at those companies are routinely surprised to learn that the instructors are themselves drivers.
"The key thing we believe is you should delegate to the broadest practical level, and to do that, the thing you need is to train people in leadership," Morse says.
And by taking the lead in sharing leadership, Morse Bros., Inc. has seen the benefits -- in a nearly 28% revenue jump over the last two years, happier customers, better teamwork, and, of course, fewer accidents.