As I’ve said in a previous blog, every business has natural lifecycle stages. Over the past few years, Select Security has begun to enter its prime. We’ve invested an enormous amount of time, energy, and money into creating new processes and procedures that allow us to offer exceptional customer service while continuing to grow at a rapid pace. In my most recent blog, I shared Malcolm Gladwell’s soccer, basketball analogy. I’d like to think that as we grow as an organization, we are taking on the characteristics of a soccer team, focusing on making our weak areas better instead of making our best areas better.

We have specifically been focusing on our “weak-link” areas through initiatives I’ve previously shared, including our Cascade Transformation and Sacred Cow Project. Gladwell’s analogy validated what we have been doing over the past few years at Select Security, and we will continue to focus on areas of improvement in order to drive the business forward.

With our Cascade Initiatives, we have developed corporate goals that have been passed down from the Senior Leadership Team to each department and subsequently each team member. Each team member has also developed individual goals and helped determine goals appropriate for the department level. Not only has this process allowed our team members to become more invested in their work and the growth of our company, but it has also addressed other areas for improvement and set goals to strengthen those parts of our business.

I’ve also previously written about one of my favorite books, Sacred Cows Make the Best Burgers. The idea that companies should take a strategic look at why and how they do what they do laid the groundwork for our own Sacred Cow Project. When starting the Sacred Cow Project and selecting the project managers to lead this initiative, I knew I wanted to take a different approach and steer away from selecting members of our Senior Leadership Team. Some might disagree and argue that choosing a manager to fill those leadership positions would be more productive or efficient, but by doing so, we are not developing the skills of team members in non-management positions. Cole Weber and Dan Phillips, the two project managers we chose, are new to the business, new to the industry, and are not too many years out of school. They have been able to take a fresh look at the business and have been driving forces for change throughout the entire project.

In addition to our Cascade Transformation and Sacred Cow Project, we have also defined our core values and have used them to set the bar for employee excellence. We have been strengthening three core areas of our organization by making Select Security a Compelling Place to Work, Shop, and Invest. The first area and core value we are strengthening is respect and value for the individual. We are creating an environment where team members feel appreciated for what they do. Our focus has been to increase employee engagement and empower each employee to get involved in decision making processes. Going back to the soccer, basketball analogy, we can relate employee engagement to the soccer team. The leader of a company can only carry the business so far, but when employees feel empowered to tackle new ideas and take responsibility for their work, they, as a whole, can help lead the company to success, much like a soccer team.

As we continue to grow as an organization, our focus will lie heavily on our continued efforts and investments to make the least best areas of our company stronger. Like Malcolm Gladwell said, every part of the community or business matters, and for us, every part of our business matters. Our customers matter, our employees matter, our products and services matter; it all matters.