Agility

September 12, 2017

I am very excited about my final couple of months as Chair, which included some really great programs! With some very appreciated help from Mark Mathes (Vanguard Companies), Kat Armstrong (Englander dZignPak), Josh Sobel (Jamestown Container), and Sahar Mehrabzadeh-Garcia (Bay Cities)—of course, along with the amazing AICC staff—I hosted the Emerging Leader program in Bentonville, Ark., where we were exposed to some of the inner workings of Walmart and heard from some terrific speakers.

Before our national meeting in September in Las Vegas, I also had the pleasureof seeing some of you at the Southeast Summit in Asheville, N.C. Hosted by Gary Brewer (Package Crafters), this interactive summit was focused on “relational capital” and building business relationships that last. A couple of short weeks after that, the Northeast Summit in Atlantic City, N.J., focused on how high-speed flexo folder-gluers, Washington, and personnel impact your bottom line.

With this aggressive schedule, I found myself out of the office more than I was in the office for the day-to-day decision-making. It seems only fitting, then, that I left “agility”

as the final installment of our five Principled Leadership values.

Agility’s definition is: “Act quickly and decisively to create ‘killer’ solutions that

make raving fans of our external and internal customers.” This speaks to how everyone within the company is empowered and encouraged to troubleshoot circumstances

that ultimately result in happy customers. We have worked hard to delegate decision-

making across the company, and we have definitely seen positive results—not only

from customer satisfaction, but in engaged and happy employees as well.

Through the year, I have walked you through how we define the values to describe Principled Leadership and that speak to our overall mission of our division. To recap:

INTEGRITY — Always doing what is right over settling for convenience.

CREATIVITY — Spirited exploration of intelligent results that “wow.”

EXCELLENCE — Striving to always be better, celebrating victories, and improving from mistakes by having a prevailing attitude of innovative habits.

BALANCE — Having fun and valuing relationships through an engaged culture of daily achievement and enjoyment.

AGILITY — Act quickly and decisively to create “killer” solutions that make raving fans of our external and internal customers.

I hope that some insight into our company over the past year has provided thought-provoking ideas that you may apply at your company. Finally, I am truly honored to have had the opportunity to serve you as Chair, and I certainly look forward to continuing to meet many of you and, of course, carrying on the many relationships that I am blessed to have within this incredible Association.