Like most organizations, our company is guided by our core values. Over the years, when faced with hard decisions, I often find the answer in these principles that have guided us for generations.
As our 117-year-old family business hit a major milestone of $1 billion in sales, one year ahead of our strategic plan: Operation B25, it is important that we celebrate, but that we do so humbly.
One of our core values that is not common in most organizations, is Celebration.
CELEBRATION
We will take time to recognize employee
efforts and celebrate our Team Darley
victories. We will work hard, have fun, and
make a difference.
Our core values are hierarchical, and this is our last core value. As a result, it is perhaps most overlooked, and the least adhered to. That’s on me.
Each year, we do take time to celebrate with cookouts, Darley swag, a Board of Praise where employees recognize each other’s achievements, etc. This summer we are celebrating with a company-wide gathering with our families in a vacation destination.
My father was a great storyteller and would often use vivid imagery to get his point across. He was also incredibly humble. One of his quotes was, “You never saw a fish mounted on a wall with its mouth closed.” The inference, of course, is that when things are going well, keep your mouth shut.
I subscribe to that, but am going to make an exception in this case and celebrate proudly, but humbly. According to research, there are fewer than 25 privately held family businesses in the USA that are over 100 years old, and over $1 billion in revenue. Most importantly, we achieved this by the noble cause of serving our country’s warfighters and first responders.
As we move on to our next strategic plan, 2B30, with an aspiration to become a $2 billion business by 2030, we will not lose sight of you – our customers, vendor partners and employees, who helped us achieve this milestone. You will continue to be our guiding light. You serve others. We serve you.
Paul C. Darley
President & Chief Executive Officer
pauldarley@darley.com
Cell: 1-708-267-6288
