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Is Your Company Committed to Their Long Standing Traditions?

Guest post by: Gary Silverman

Article Overview: Are you a second or even third generation business owner? The generations before you made the sacrifices and did whatever was necessary to build the fundamentals of the business you are running today. Have the traditions, ideals, and values your business was built on survived the passing of the baton? Many companies have discarded these fundamentals as a cost cutting measure or because they seem antiquated. These traditions were the basis for the growth and survival of the “family business” yet they wind up on the committee “cutting room floor”. Nothing is more apparent than changes made to the core values of employee and customer satisfaction.

Is Your Company Committed to Their Long Standing Traditions?

I was watching some old sports reels of baseball games played in the fifties. The stands were filled with fans all wearing suits, ties, and hats. This was the uniform for our country and it set a high standard for patriotism and moral standards. Then the ACLU challenged dress codes in schools which as a result allowed students to wear jeans and sneakers. All the while the “dumbing of America” evolved into “casual friday”. It came to a head the other day on American Idol with the “release”, so to speak of “Pants on the Ground”. Old values rising up.

I just got off a plane from Atlanta to Las Vegas. I was reminded of the vacations I took with my parents so many years ago. Plane travel was about the flight NOT the destination. It was an event, an experience. We laid out our best clothes, we had our friends and relatives “see us off at the gate”, and of course my dad wore a suit, tie, and hat. I recently spoke with someone in the industry who I have alot of respect for. He related a conversation he had with a flight attendant who has been on the job for over 20 years. She said that when she first started she had a proper, starched uniform and they issued her “white gloves”. She said her white gloves have been replaced handcuffs. My friend commented that years ago we dressed up to fly and now TSA has us undressing to fly. He suggested there should be locker rooms on the other side of the metal detectors so he could show up in his bathrobe, go through security, shower, dress, and board his flight. NOT a bad idea.

I spent a few years attempting to improve the operations of a 40 year old third generation automobile retailer. Business was slipping even before the auto industry plummeted , they were ahead of the curve. This company had literally hundreds of pictures of their history plastered all over the walls of corporate as well as their individual locations, 40 years of tradition...very proud. They had many long term, loyal employees who endured the passing of the torch out of a sense of obligation to the earlier generations. You can’t find that type of blind faith around much anymore. As the faux commitment to tradition hung on the walls, the foundation of those walls was being chipped away daily in the name of continuous improvement. Each year before Thanksgiving the company bought each employee a 12 pound turkey. I would smoke mine, some would deep fry theirs, others donated theirs to the local homeless shelter. One year the turkeys were eliminated with very little advanced notice. There were about 800 employees system wide and the cost of the turkeys were around $18,000, about the cost of the saturday newspaper ads, filling the company plane with fuel, the taxes on the beach house in Maui ,the full time painter the matriarch had on staff at the family home, or the yearly cost of flowers arrangements for their foyer of said manse. I offered to buy my employees a turkey using my own money. I was shot down because that would have wreaked havoc on the morale of the other locations. I suggested each GM follow my lead, again; this will be “bad for morale”. If morale was so important why eliminate the turkeys to begin with? It was a tradition. Add to the list Xmas parties, covered dish holiday parties, company outings or picnics, $50 year end bonuses, to name a few. Every company has their own distinct traditions. I am asking all of you to reach back in time and revisit the value of your traditions as they may be an important part of the culture of your company and have a profound effect on the morale, attitude, and internal reputation of your business. Don’t throw the baby out with the bath water. You can find plenty of waste to cut that won’t cause any harm.

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Article Tags: core values, family business, generation business, survival, traditions



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