places to work

COUNSELOR
THE VOICE OF THE INDUSTRY
DECEMBER 2013
ROAD TOUR
“The not-nice
people weed
themselves out
pretty quickly.”
“Everyone's
contribution
counts.”
We Visit 15
Cool, Fun,
Wacky,
Energetic &
Motivated
Industry
Companies
STRATEGIES
PLACES TO WORK
“We do
push-ups
four times
daily.”
“The bar
is open.”
“Have
you seen
our disco
ball?”
Create an
Innovative
Corporate
Culture
AWARDS
The 85 Top
Workplaces
In the
Industry
BEST
PLACES TO WORK
2013
Exclusive ranking of the 85 top workplaces in the ad
specialty industry.
By Andy Cohen;
Research by Quantum Workplace
W
hat makes a company
a great place to
work? Employees
who feel respected,
involved and
engaged. Indeed,
it’s all about how
employees feel about coming to work on a
daily basis. If they’re depended upon by their
managers and the company as a whole to make
the organization a success, then that’s the
beginning of a good recipe for an outstanding
workplace.
Those are the types of companies you’ll find
on the following pages – Counselor’s 2013 Best
COUNSELOR | DECEMBER 2013
Places to Work. It’s a list of 85 companies that
are all being honored because their employees
told us how much they respect the companies
that sign their paychecks.
In surveying the employees of ad specialty
companies – more than 4,000 of them this
year – we came up with the top 85 Best Places
to Work in the industry. Those companies are
depicted on the map inside the gatefold and
listed in rank order.
How have these companies set themselves
apart in their employees’ minds? Check out
the coverage of Counselor’s Best Places to
Work Road Tour (beginning on page 80) for indepth stories on 15 of them.
69
32 Image Group Inc
Vancouver, BC
65 White Paper Office Solutions
33 SanMar
46
66 BrandAlliance
Calgary, AB
Delta, BC
Ea
Issaquah, WA
75 Showdown Displays
Ramsey, MN
21 Image Source
Kirkland, WA
12 iClick
85 The Innovative Line
Seattle, WA
Spring Park, MN
38 GO USA
54 Greater China Industries
Wenatchee, WA
Bellevue, WA
17 Catalyst
Marketing
Seattle, WA
10 Sunrise Identity
Bellevue, WA
8 Corporate
Imaging Concepts
Northbrook, IL
67 CMD
Portland, OR
56 Quality Logo Products
Aurora, IL
63 Insight Resource Group
Orinda, CA
4 Royal Crest Promotions
Golden, CO
15 MadeToOrder
Pleasanton, CA
80 Visstun/Digispec/CounterPoint
69 Bergman Incentives
Las Vegas, Nevada
Omaha, NE
20 Way To Be
Hayward, CA
1 Crystal Impressions by Saeana
Las Vegas, NV
70 ETS Express
Oxnard, CA
84 Midwest Single Source
Wichita, KA
27 Pinnacle Designs
San Fernando, CA
26 Promo Shop
Los Angeles, CA
5 Clean Fun
Promotional Marketing
Costa Mesa, CA
41 CleggPromo
Gardena, CA
68 Tic Toc
Dallas, TX
51 Bob Lilly Professional Promotions
Dallas, TX
60 Fontis
24 Jack Nadel
International
Los Angeles, CA
Solutions
Irvine, CA
71 Stowebridge
39 Pacific
Promotion Group
Chandler, AZ
Western Sales
Brea, CA
3 Beehive Specialty
Austin, TX
23 Commotion
Promotions
Phoenix, AZ
62 Boundless
Network
Austin, TX
Best Places to Work
1 Crystal Impressions by Seaena (asi/47782)
22 Bright Ideas LLC (asi/146026)
2 Proforma Albrecht & Co. (asi/116308)
23 Commotion Promotions (asi/166010)
3 Beehive Specialty (asi/135780)
24 Jack Nadel International (asi/279600)
4 Royal Crest Promotions (asi/83740)
25 CE Competitive Edge LLC (asi/166085)
5 Clean Fun Promotional Marketing (asi/162979)
26 Promo Shop (asi/300446)
6 Concepts & Associates (asi/166235)
27 Pinnacle Designs (asi/78140)
7 The Book Company (asi/41010)
28 Walker-Clay (asi/354530)
8 Corporate Imaging Concepts (asi/168962)
29 CredentialExpress (asi/47204)
9 DYR Design Your Recognition (asi/48051)
30 Chamberlain Marketing Group (asi/160501)
10 Sunrise Identity (asi/339206)
31 Mac Mannes (asi/259100)
11 NewClients Inc. (asi/282470)
12 iClick (asi/62124)
13 Proforma (asi/300094)
14 Talbot Marketing (asi/341500)
15 MadeToOrder (asi/259540)
16 Cavanaugh Marketing Network (asi/159262)
17 Catalyst Marketing (asi/159067)
18 JH Specialty (asi/232445)
19 Genumark Promotional Merchandise
(asi/204588)
32 Image Group (asi/230059)
33 SanMar (asi/84862)
34 CompleteSource (asi/525011)
35 AIA Corporation (asi/109480)
36 ePromos Promotional Products (asi/188515)
37 PromoSpark (asi/349939)
38 GO USA (asi/208784)
39 Pacific Western Sales (asi/75731)
40 CSE (asi/155807)
41 CleggPromo (asi/45450)
20 Way To Be (asi/355980)
42 GatewayCDI (asi/202515)
21 Image Source (asi/230121)
43 Match-Up Promotions (asi/264230)
35 AIA Corporation
Neenah, WI
53 Cotton Candy
6 Team Mates
agan, MN
Mississauga, ON
57 14 West LLC
19 Genumark Promotional
Merchandise
Toronto, ON
Waukesha, WI
55 Swag Promotions
Menomonee Falls, WI
74 WOV-IN
Jackson, WI
64 RIGHTSLEEVE
Toronto, ON
25 CE
79 Apothercary
Compettitive
Edge
Stevensville, MI
40 CSE
New Berlin, WI
28 Walker-Clay
Products Inc.
St. Charles, MI
Hanson, MA
78 Bay State Specialty Company
34 CompleteSource
Lakeville, MA
Grand Rapids, MI
30 Chamberlain
Marketing Group
Taylor, MI
73 Motivators
14 Talbot Marketing
Westbury, NY
London, ON
52 Axis Promotions
New York, NY
37 PromoSpark
83 Mid-Nite Snax
Fairfield, OH
47 Overture Premiums
& Promotions
Vernon Hills, IL
Mineola, NY
72 The Image Group
18 JH Specialty
Fort Wayne, IN
42 GatewayCDI
St. Louis, MO
48 Indoff
St. Louis, MO
82 Numo
Kaufman , TX
2 Proforma
Albrecht & Co
Milford, OH
Pittsburgh, PA
Columbus, OH
13 Proforma
Cleveland, OH
44 Admints & Zagabor
Bellmawr, NJ
22 Bright
Ideas
Troy, VA
61 Sonic Promos
Gaithersburg, MD
31 Mac Mannes
Memphis, TN
Bethesda, MD
11 NewClients
58 Pinnacle
Associates
Birmingham, AL
81 Safeguard
Promotions
Norcross, GA
59 eCompanyStore
Glen Allen, VA
29 CredentialExpress
Greenwood, SC
Alpharetta, GA
Business Systems
Dallas, TX
77 Activate! Promotions + Marketing
Charlotte, NC
43 Match-Up Promotions
Longwood, FL
49 The Icebox
Atlanta, GA
New York, NY
76 Leaderpromos
50 Signet
6 Concepts &
36 ePromos Promotional Products
45 HDS
Holland, OH
7 The Book Company
Delray Beach, FL
9 DYR
Boca Raton, FL
16 Cavanaugh
Marketing Network
Pittsburgh, PA
BEST PLACES TO WORK
44 Admints & Zagabor (asi/31516)
65 White Paper Office Solutions (asi/359726)
45 HDS (asi/216897)
66 BrandAlliance (asi/145177)
46 Team Mates (asi/90674)
67 CMD (asi/170680)
47 Overture Premiums & Promotions
(asi/288473)
68 Tic Toc (asi/158990)
48 Indoff (asi/231011)
49 The Icebox (asi/229395)
50 Signet (asi/326636)
51 Bob Lilly Professional Promotions
(asi/254138)
52 Axis Promotions (asi/128263)
53 Cotton Candy Inc. (asi/169186)
54 Greater China Industries (asi/58135)
55 SWAG Promotions (asi/258146)
56 Quality Logo Products (asi/302967)
57 14 West LLC (asi/197092)
69 Bergman Incentives (asi/137955)
70 ETS Express (asi/51197)
71 Stowebridge Promotion Group (asi/337500)
72 The Image Group (asi/230069)
73 Motivators (asi/277780)
74 WOV-IN (asi/92980)
75 Showdown Displays (asi/87188)
76 Leaderpromos (asi/287087)
77 Activate! Promotions + Marketing (asi/141964)
78 Bay State Specialty Company (asi/38980)
58 Pinnacle Promotions (asi/295986)
79 Apothecary Products Inc. - Karlen Division
(asi/36545)
59 eCompanyStore (asi/185782)
80 Visstun/Digispec/CounterPoint (asi/49716)
60 Fontis Solutions (230085)
81 Safeguard Business Systems (asi/316203)
61 Sonic Promos (asi/329865)
82 Numo (asi/74710)
62 Boundless Network (asi/143717)
83 Mid-Nite Snax (asi/71685)
63 Insight Resource Group (asi/231569)
84 Midwest Single Source (asi/327845)
64 Right Sleeve Marketing (asi/308922)
85 The Innovative Line (asi/62677)
Best Places To Work 2013
High Flyers
HOW WE DID IT
The following eight companies made big leaps on the
Best Places to Work rankings between 2012 and 2013.
4
9
16
21
26
27
27
Royal
Crest
Promotions
34
DYR
37
Cavanaugh
22
43
Image Source
50
Promo Shop
73
Pinnacle
Designs
34
85
CompleteSource
41
68
CleggPromo
The number of suppliers on the Best
Places to Work list. This represents
26% of the winners, the highest
percent of suppliers on the list since
Counselor began it in 2008.
Top 40 Workplaces
The larger a company gets, the harder it is to maintain it as a great
workplace. The following 13 Top 40 companies, though, are among
this year’s Best Places to Work (listed in order of how they appear).
Proforma
Genumark Promotional Merchandise
Jack Nadel International
Promo Shop
SanMar
AIA Corporation
CSE
Axis Promotions
Boundless Network
BrandAlliance
Tic Toc
ETS Express
Safeguard Business Systems
76
The Best Places to Work program
involved an in-depth survey process developed by Counselor’s
research partner for this project,
Quantum Workplace. The process
began in February with a nomination period, and to qualify for
nomination a company had to have
10 or more employees in the first
quarter of 2013. More than 300
companies completed the initial
nomination process.
Then, each company asked all
of their employees to complete
a 37-question survey about their
experience working at that organization. The survey measured 10
different areas: team effectiveness, retention risk (employee
loyalty), alignment with goals
(does employee understand goals
of company?), trust with coworkers, individual contribution (does
the company adequately recognize
employees?), manager effectiveness, trust in senior leaders, feeling valued (does the company
invest in employee success?),
satisfaction with current role, and
people practices (satisfaction with
company benefits).
Ultimately, about 150 industry
companies began the survey process with their employees. Surveys
were administered between April
8 and May 31 through a secure,
online site created by Quantum. In
instances where certain employees
couldn’t get to a computer, paper
surveys were conducted through
the mail. Also, the survey was
translated into Spanish for some
non-English-speaking workers.
After the surveys were completed, Quantum scored all of the
responses and all questions on
the survey were weighted evenly.
Quantum then presented Counselor a ranking of all the companies that qualified for inclusion
in the program – to qualify each
company had to meet a certain
pre-stated benchmark percentage
of the amount of employees who
responded to the survey (this was
based on a sliding scale depending
on how many people a company
employs).
Counselor then took the top 85
companies from Quantum’s scored
rankings and is honoring those
organizations as this year’s Best
Places to Work in the ad specialty
industry.
DECEMBER 2013 | COUNSELOR
Day 1, 1:15.
Taking off from
Trevose, PA
Day 1, 2:45. Corn hole at
Admints in New Jersey
Day 2, 9:50. Push-ups in
Pittsburgh at Cavanaugh
Day 4, 12:15. Indoff’s scary
pumpkin contest winners
Day 4, 9:45. GatewayCDI’s bar in St. Louis
Day 3, 4:25. Roadside pit stop
2013 BEST PLA
ROAD TO
Day 4, 1:35. Gateway to the West
Day 5, 9:25. A
dog welcome at
Tic Toc in Dallas
Day 5, NOON. Sunny celebration
in Dallas at Safeguard
Day 7, 6:35.
Road tour ends
in Bellevue, WA
Day 7, 2:20. Greater China’s
sales bell in Bellevue, WA
Day 7, 12:45.
SanMar’s Marty
& Jeremy Lott
80
DECEMBER 2013 | COUNSELOR
Day 2, 11:45. Ping pong
at HDS in Pittsburgh
Day 2, 5:20. Dog walking at
Leaderpromos in Columbus, OH
Day 2, 6:30. Happy hour
with Leaderpromos
Day 3, 11:30. Meeting
PromoSpark’s founders in Ohio
Day 3, 10:15.
Happy Fred
Albrecht
Day 3, 9:15.
Scary welcome
at Albrecht
in Ohio
CES TO WORK
OUR
Day 5, 2:45. Work out with
Numo crew in Texas
Day 7, 12:15.
Sampling sushi
at SanMar café
COUNSELOR | DECEMBER 2013
Day 6, 3:30.
CMD’s loft-like
office in Portland
Day 7, 9:55. Pillow fight at Catalyst
Day 6, 4:10. On the
CMD sun deck
Day 7, 9:25.
Fierce
welcome at
Catalyst in
Seattle
81
Road Tour
What makes employees love
– really love – their jobs?
T
hat was the question Counselor
set out to answer as three editors
bravely embarked on our third
annual Counselor Best Places
to Work Tour. In a span of seven days in
October, we traversed the country on
four wheels, loaded down with camera
equipment, travel bags, laptops, iPads and
iPhones, traveling a whopping 6,363 miles
to visit 15 distributor and supplier companies on this year’s Best Places to Work List
and chronicle everything we saw.
Our goal: to find out what an engaged
workforce looks like. It’s an important mission. According to a recent Gallup Poll, only
30% of U.S. workers are engaged in their
jobs. Yet a recent Harvard Business Review
study identified a crucial link between
employee engagement and productivity.
Happy employees are not just a nice thing
to have; they’re crucial to building profits.
Over the course of our multi-day trek,
we saw that employee engagement can
come via many forms: We witnessed it as
we huffed and puffed through push-ups
with a group of employees in Pittsburgh.
We saw it as we judged a cutthroat pumpkin
carving contest in St. Louis. We observed it
while tripping over the leashes of chihuahuas in Dallas. And we most certainly got a
taste of it at an employee cafeteria in Seattle, which was stocked with healthy choices
like organic squash, quinoa and kale.
While all of the workplaces we saw were
unique, there were some common denominators among many:
Healthy living. We were warned when
we rolled into Cavanaugh Marketing that
the company’s founder Pat Cavanaugh
(a former college basketball player) was
known to have employees ‘stop and drop’
and do push-ups now and then. Little did
we know that it was a four-times-a-day
event, and that the crew of 12 has pledged
to do a total of 500,000 this year. After
having staffers count off as we did our
own sets of push-ups, it quickly became
obvious how a spurt of exercise can provide
82
a motivational boost. “It literally pushes all
of us to do more,” said Sotiris Aggelou, vice
president of operations and development.
In Kaufman, TX, we saw a similar approach:
Numo’s Jim Martin introduced us to Stella,
a personal trainer who has employees jump
hurdles, lift kettlebells and race each other
through the factory aisles three times a
week. “Look at the energy around here,”
Martin told us, as we witnessed a raucous
volleyball game break out on the factory
floor. “Look how happy people are.”
A creative workspace. Nearly every
company we visited on the Road Tour
had something special about its work
areas, whether it was an upscale kitchen
(Tic Toc in Dallas had one with granite
countertops), crazy-comfortable seating
(again, at Tic Toc, in the form of a cozy
lounge area with soft couches), a bar for
entertaining (Gateway in St. Louis and
Greater China in Seattle both had those),
high-tech conference rooms (Portlandbased CMD has 11, each named after a
popular board game) and ergonomic
workspaces for employees. At Proforma
Albrecht & Co. in Ohio, co-founder
Suzette Albrecht has made it her personal
mission to create a workspace, complete
with colorful bouncing barstools (they’re
literally on springs), that makes employees
comfortable. “I’m really picky about how
this place looks,” she said. “I want people to
feel at home while they’re here.”
Challenging, exciting work. Want to rev
up the troops? Give them say over which
projects they handle, which new client
segments they bring in, or even a new idea
that seems beyond your company’s current
bandwidth. At GatewayCDI in St. Louis,
the company is currently in talks with a
client to outfit a Weinermobile-like vehicle
with mobile cash registers for a crosscountry tour. “Our people have fun with
challenges,” founder Chuck Fandos told us.
“They don’t want to live a Dilbert-type of
lifestyle.” Ditto for supplier Greater China
in Seattle, where employees say the reason
they come to work is because they get to
do custom work for most of their clients.
“Every day is an adventure here,” said Chris
Ritchie, an account executive.
Managers who care. Most of the Best
Places to Work companies the Counselor
crew visited had corporate values that
were very visible around the offices. At
SanMar in Issaquah, WA, “Be nice” is a top
corporate value. At Admints in Belmawr,
NJ, co-owner Brett Hersh cultivates a
family environment where the company’s
leadership will help out employees in need
with financial donations and extra time off.
And at GatewayCDI, even the company’s
top brass greets every single employee by
name in the hallways. “That’s just how we
operate here,” said CMO Conrad Franey.
Staffers who genuinely like each
other. We were initially suspicious when
employees started exiting Leaderpromos in
Columbus at 5 p.m. on the dot. Where was
everyone rushing to? Turns out it was to
toast one another at happy hour at a local
hotspot. And why not? It was a beautiful,
sunny Tuesday, and several employees
wanted to talk about a project they were
working on. Even one employee’s dog
was in attendance. Managers can’t make
employees be friends with one another,
but what they can do is create events
where friendships naturally happen. At Tic
Toc, employees have grown tight through
company-sponsored trips to the State
Fair. At Catalyst Marketing in Seattle,
friendships have grown over cooking
classes. “People help each other out here
because they genuinely like each other,”
says HR Manager Cathy Sapiro.
Turn the page for a day-by-day account
of what makes the employees at the industry’s best workplaces tick. Head to www.
counselormag.com/counselortour for complete video, social network, and blog coverage of the trip.
DECEMBER 2013 | COUNSELOR
ROAD TOUR BY THE NUMBERS
6,363 225
MILES TRAVELED
64
Counselor Best Places to
Work T-Shirts Given Out
15 COMPANIES VISITED
41 HOURS
11
6.5 GALLONS 8
76
Push-Ups
Amount of time the team members
Done by
Road Crew collectively slept on the road
BAD PARKING JOBS
Amount of coffee drank
by the crew on the road
The number of times
we rolled onto the
rumble strips
on the highway
27 DOGS PET
COUNSELOR | DECEMBER 2013
Number of times
the crew heard
“Roar” by Katy
Perry while driving
83
Road Tour
DAY ONE
NEW
JERSEY
S
ometimes small businesses struggle to maintain a small, family-like
atmosphere as they grow bigger. That doesn’t seem to be
the problem at Admints & Zagabor, Counselor’s first stop on
the 2013 Best Places to Work
Road Tour. As the crew pulled
up to the company’s Bellmawr,
NJ, headquarters on a midOctober Monday afternoon,
the Admints gang of about 70
was taking advantage of the
70-degree weather by playing
lawn games and eating pizza
and hot dogs outside of the
company’s headquarters.
Company co-owners Brett
Hersh and Steve Weissman got
in on the fun, Brett playing a
beanbag-toss game and Weissman trying to untangle himself
in a group ‘human knot.’ “I’ve
been here so long that I think
of Brett and Steve as my brothers,” said Crisy Carosella, an
art director at the company,
which Hersh and Weissman
founded 13 years ago with one
product – a logoed cardboard
box of mints. The company
has since expanded its product
offering to include mostly U.S.made candy, lip balm, hand
sanitizer, gourmet food gifts
and lanyards, and has seen
double-digit annual growth for
several years.
Carosella isn’t the only
employee who feels that way.
Robert Lafferty, the Admints
manufacturing manager who
proudly wears an Eagles cap
under his blue hairnet on the
factory floor, says the company’s founders took a chance
on him five years ago when he
was 55 years old, and had been
unemployed for over a year.
“No one would interview me.”
But then he got a call from
84
The first stop of the Road Tour was at Admints, where employees were playing outdoor picnic games, explaining how the growing
company ramps up loyalty, and trying to untie themselves from a big human knot.
Hersh and Weissman, who
hired him after three interviews. He’s since brought in
two other former co-workers,
and plans to stay at Admints
until he retires. “I told them
they wouldn’t be sorry, and
I’ll work as hard as I can for
as long as Brett and Steve own
the company,” Lafferty says.
Hersh says that kind of loyalty doesn’t go unnoticed at
Admints. “Whether someone
needs some flexibility because
of an illness or family stuff, or
even if they need some financial help, we respond however
we need to,” he says.
Today’s outdoor party
isn’t unusual. Every month,
the company holds “Pizza
Fridays,” where managers
give out ‘employee-of-themonth’ awards and celebrate
employees’ birthdays. Over the
holidays, Admints executives
take the whole crew to a large
arcade where they engage in
cutthroat pool tournaments
and play video games. They’ve
also been known to go bowling
and to Philadelphia sporting
events together. “Our employees work hard and they care,
and they’re rewarded for that,”
Hersh says.
Day One
Tweet Tracker
@ASI_AndyCohen They take their
team building very seriously at
Admints.
@ASI_melinda Brett and Andy think
they’re big shots cause they won a
silly Frisbee game in the Admints
back yard. Whatever.
@ASI_AndyCohen Admints’ Brett
Hersh shows @asi_joehaley how to
play corn hole. Too bad Joe lost.
@asi_joehaley After 3 years
of the Counselor Road Tour @
asi_andycohen finally parks the car
properly.
DECEMBER 2013 | COUNSELOR
Want to see the Leaderpromos team jump for joy?
Go to www.CounselorMag.com/counselortour to
check out the Instagram photos.
DAY TWO
PITTSBURGH
Push-Ups for Breakfast
A
s the Road Tour mobile
pulled into Pittsburgh,
there was a palpable anxiety among the crew. It wasn’t
nerves born from any hesitation
about the company we were
visiting, but rather the source
of concern was from what we
knew we were going to be doing
when we pulled up to Cavanaugh
Marketing in Pittsburgh. One
Word: push-ups. Cavanaugh’s
founder Pat Cavanaugh instituted a push-up program for his
12 employees last year, which
is part team-building, part
motivation and part wellness.
Indeed, the staffers stop what
they’re doing four times a day
and drop and do as many pushups as they can. “It’s an inspirational thing for all of us,” says
Sotiris Aggelou. “It’s a unique
experience that we’ve all come
to value.”
And while the employees
met a stated goal of doing a
total of 250,000 push-ups
among the whole staff last
year, the company has upped
the ante this year and is shooting to do 500,000 push-ups.
Of course, visitors are also
expected to hit the floor – or
the conference room table,
as some choose to do – and
participate in the push-up
exercise. Always game for any
challenge, we did the best we
could and in the motivated
and energetic office, and even
pushed through stated goals –
64 among the three of us. Not
bad for push-up rookies.
The program, though, is
emblematic of the motivational
and team-oriented environment
at Cavanaugh. “We’re all always
helping each other and really
working as a team to get the job
done and meet our goals,” says
Cara Cavanaugh, the manager of
sales operations at the company
COUNSELOR | DECEMBER 2013
and who is also Pat’s wife. “It’s a
place where we all enjoy spending time with each other, and
where everybody is involved and
engaged in the whole operation.”
As the Ping Pong Ball
Bounces
As the Road Tour team rolls
into HDS, headquartered in
Pittsburgh, founder and CEO
Howard Schwartz stands at the
door grinning, as two of his top
executives go at it at the Ping
Pong table in the company’s cavernous lobby. They barely look
up as one shouts out the score of
the obviously cutthroat match.
Is Schwartz concerned that
the duo isn’t busy conducting
business? Not at all. In fact, the
owner of the 21-year-year-old
business, which will experience double-digit growth this
year, looks at things a little bit
differently than most business
chiefs: “I want to work in a
place that makes me happy, and
I want my employees to feel the
same way,” says Schwartz, who
started the company in his parents’ basement after graduating
from college. At first, he figured
he’d sell just keychains and
license plates to car dealers.
“It was something that I
was good at, and it didn’t seem
like real work,” said Schwartz.
Indeed, he was good at it, netting $35,000 his first year, and
expanding into promotional
products. His company has
grown every year thereafter.
Today, HDS has 52 employees, a
new 40,000-square-foot headquarters office, and a large onsite apparel-decorating facility.
As relaxed as Schwartz sounds
when talking about work, he and
his team members obviously
have worked hard to maintain
this level of growth. He hires
people who are passionate about
what they do and aren’t afraid to
burn the midnight oil to help out
a co-worker. “If someone’s working on a big project, everyone
gets together and helps out,” says
Kelly Witzel, co-director of oper-
ations. “We just work together
until something gets done.”
Happy Hour with the
Leaderpromos Gang
It may have been 5 p.m. when
the Road Tour pulled up to Leaderpromos in Columbus, OH,
but the office was still abuzz with
activity. Employees were working on projects and collaborating
on orders and new ideas. But it
was clear that many would soon
be heading to Lounge 62, a local
bar that the Leaderpromos gang
likes to frequent. “We could do
a tour of the company, or, well,
we could go across the street to
Lounge 62 and discuss it there,”
said Joel Hoover, director of
business development.
Leaderpromos is a place
where people are good friends
and can express themselves in
individual ways – in fact, some
sit on stress balls as chairs, others decorate their offices with
sports paraphernalia, and others
bring dogs to the office. “We like
everybody to feel comfortable
while they’re at work here,” says
Susie Barger, chief marketing
officer. “They spend a lot of time
here, so they should feel as at
home as they can.”
The company, which was
started by Stephanie Leader
in 1995 and has grown into a
75-person operation, is dominated today by young people
who are all friends that hang out
after work and on weekends.
“We have the best people. They
create the fun and energetic
environment that dominates
here every day,” said Hoover.
“I’m 45 and I’m old here.”
With summer picnics, holiday
parties, softball teams, bowling
outings and kickball leagues
sponsored by the company, the
employees are afforded many
opportunities to gather outside
of work. Often, that teamwork is
exhibited after work at Lounge
62, as we found out when we
joined them after 6 p.m. They
were off the clock for the day –
and, so were we.
Day Two
Tweet Tracker
@ASI_AndyCohen Welcome to
Cavanaugh in Pittsburgh, where the
office looks like a barn.
@ASI_melinda Doing push-ups
with the Cavanaugh Marketing gang
in Pittsburgh.
@asi_joehaley HDS is a company
filled with Beliebers.
@ASI_melinda Leaderpromos’
graphic team shares a passion for
Jay-Z.
Top: Strength training at Cavanaugh.
Middle: HDS’ Howard Schwartz. Bottom:
End-of-day drink with Leaderpromos.
85
Road Tour
DAY THREE
Day Three
Tweet Tracker
OHIO
@ASI_AndyCohen Always cool to
pull up to a hotel at 10pm to find they
don’t have rooms for you. Thanks
Homewood Suites Milford, OH.
@ASI_melinda It’s mimosa time
with Fred Albrecht!
@ASI_AndyCohen The gang at
PromoSpark, including Carson the
dog, do yoga a couple times a week in
the office.
@ASI_melinda Andy keeps turning
from the wrong lane. #driversed?
Creeped Out at
Proforma Albrecht
T
he lobby of Proforma
Albrecht & Co., headquartered in Milford, OH, is
just plain scary. There are spider webs everywhere. Rats are
perched on every surface. A pair
of skeletons are sitting on the
couch, reading Counselor magazine. And just around the corner
sits a guy who has a torture
chamber and bloody clown
heads hanging in his office.
Lots of offices put decorations
up on Halloween, but Albrecht,
well, they go all the way. It’s all
part of the culture at Albrecht,
where Suzette Albrecht, who
founded the company with husband Fred in 1999, prides herself
on creating an environment
where employees are comfortable and happy.
“I hear people talk about
motivating employees by giving them free products they’ve
gotten from suppliers, and I
was amazed by that,” Suzy says.
“That’s not motivating. For me,
motivation is creating a real nice
workspace for people.”
And that’s exactly what
Albrecht has done. When the
company, which has 30 employees at its headquarters and
about 100 sales reps spread
throughout the country, moved
to its headquarters six years ago,
Suzy said she “was very picky”
about everything from employee
chairs (they had to be ergonomic) to the conference room.
Instead of a traditional boardroom with a table and chairs in
the middle, it’s decked out with
cozy sofas, brightly colored bar
stools that bounce (they have
springs on the bottom), and a
showcase of interesting products
the company has provided to its
clients. A lunch room is stocked
with drinks and Albrecht-subsidized snacks (each item costs
86
Fred and Suzette Albrecht, founders of Proforma Albrecht & Co. in Ohio, are 100%
dedicated to creating a comfortable and rewarding workplace for their employees.
only a quarter), along with an
extensive library of the latest
video releases which employees
can check out for free. Every
Friday, Suzy goes to Target to
buy whatever new movie has just
come out. “We really want people to feel like they’re respected,
like they’re taken care of here,”
Suzy says.
Christina Ashby, who’s in
order processing, says touches
like this make all the difference.
“When you have a busy week,
these kinds of things just make
you feel good.”
While Suzy has employees’
comfort in mind, Fred makes
it a point to be accessible at all
times, especially to salespeople
who are working in home offices
throughout the country. If a rep
based in Los Angeles calls him at
midnight, he answers the phone.
He spends so much time talking
to reps that he knows practically
everything about their personal
lives – from whose kid pitched
a no-hitter to whose daughter is
getting married.
All of these personal touches
are clearly paying off for
Albrecht. The company has
grown every year and was on
Inc. magazine’s fastest-growing
list for five years in a row and
now records annual revenues
in excess of $20 million. Not so
creepy after all.
Family Atmosphere at
Work
Pulling up to the PromoSpark
office in Fairfield, OH, in the rain
the Road Tour crew is quickly
greeted by Carson, the PromoSpark mascot. Ok, really Carson
is the PromoSpark owners’ dog,
who does happen to be in the
office most days. And, while
Carson runs freely through the
office, the rest of the 12 people
who work here are usually busy
completing an order for its many
nonprofit and education market
clients. “It’s a busy time of year
for us right now, but we try to
make it a fun environment even
when it’s entirely stressful,” says
Mark Johnston, who began the
business with his wife Sarah
in 2001. “Especially when it’s
overly stressful, we want to have
fun and make it comfortable for
our people.”
The de-stress environment
begins with the twice weekly
yoga class that is conducted in
the company’s basement. “We
bring in an instructor and many
of us take part,” says Sarah
Johnston. “It’s just a good way
to take a break from work, put
your mind on something else
and clear the decks for the rest of
the day.”
Spend any time with the
people of PromoSpark and one
thing is abundantly clear: This
is a family that looks out for
each other, not just at work,
but also in their personal lives.
Sarah Ellis, the company’s sales
manager who the Johnstons
describe as their right-hand
woman, has been with the company for six years and says she
loves working here because of
the people. “It’s a second family here,” says Ellis. “It’s a small
company and the people all
know each other personally.
The owners care about us, and
we care about them.”
That’s just the way Sarah and
Mark like it. They started their
company together two months
before they got engaged, and
want to build their fast-growing
outfit in the mode of family.
“We don’t want to grow too big,”
Mark says. “We’ve done really
well, growing every year since
we started between 15% and
40% a year, but we also want
our office to be a place where
our people – and us – are comfortable.”
DECEMBER 2013 | COUNSELOR
Go to www.CounselorMag.com/counselortour
to see a video of Indoff’s wickedly-spooky
pumpkin carving contest.
DAY FOUR
ST. LOUIS
The Personal Touch
T
ake a stroll down one of
the main hallways near the
entrance of Gateway CDI
in St. Louis and you can’t help
but notice the 75 or so framed
photographs – each of one of the
company’s employees with his or
her name clearly labeled underneath. On the other side, you’ll
find the company newsletter
and photographs of employees
who have won recent company
awards, ranging from “best
laugh” to “most caffeinated.”
The hallway serves an important
purpose, says the company’s
chief marketing officer, Conrad
Franey, who is striding around
on this fall morning in a St. Louis
Cardinals T-shirt, baggy white
pants and a pair of day-gloorange Chuck Taylors. “You’re
never gonna walk by anybody in
this place without saying ‘hello’
and using their first name,”
Franey says. “That’s how we
operate here.”
Franey says the company,
which was founded 25 years
ago by Chuck Fandos and his
wife Susie, takes its personal
approach very seriously – to the
extent that company employees
go out of their way to help each
other. Just recently, an employee
lost her home to a fire, and her
co-workers mobilized immediately, donating cash, TV, clothing,
a bed, and toys for the woman’s
two children. “That type of caring is what brings me to work
every day,” says Cindy Kinner,
who heads up the embroidery
department.
Gateway’s chiefs want
employees to care about the
company too, so they share
the company’s financials every
month, talk to employees oneon-one about their career paths
with the company, and have
monthly food events where
everybody gets together and
COUNSELOR | DECEMBER 2013
GatewayCDI’s Chuck Fandos and Conrad Franey celebrate a St. Louis Cardinals World
Series appearance, while the pumpkins at Indoff provided a scary distraction to the crew.
talks about what’s going on in
their departments.
Perhaps this culture is what
makes Gateway’s employees go
the extra mile for its clients —
typically major corporations who
plan large programs of $500,000
or more. That type of client can
be demanding, Franey says, citing an example of a new client
that’s developing a special, solarpowered branded vehicle (think
the Oscar Mayer Weinermobile),
and is looking for Gateway to
create mobile cash registers
and staff the vehicle as it drives
around the country. “This isn’t
something we’ve done before but
our employees were like, ‘Hey,
we’re up for it,’ so we’re doing it,”
he says.
But no matter what the project is, or how long it takes, Franey
says, employees rally behind it.
“Our people are overachievers,”
he says. “They don’t want to live
a Dilbert-type of lifestyle.”
Early (and Scary)
Halloween
Pumpkin decorating. It’s a fallseason rite of passage at Indoff,
and it’s clear that everybody
takes the contest very seriously.
The company’s corporate office
in St. Louis, which employs
about 55 people and supports
around 400 salespeople across
the country, is abuzz this Thursday afternoon, as the staffers are
split up into eight groups, each
tasked with decorating it in as
scary a way as possible and submitting their creations by noon.
And, boy did they come up
with some crazily decorative
pumpkins. There was a Scream
one, another that was a nod
to the Stephen King movie It,
another that had spider legs
made out of real hair, one that
had a rat coming out of its
mouth, and a purely frightening entry named Bob (after one
staffer who was out of the office
that day) that had knives coming
out of its head, ears half cut off,
and thrown-up bloody pumpkin
seeds emanating from its mouth.
Ultimately, the purpose of an
event like this is clear: To bring
the employees together, give
them something to rib each other
about (yes, there was plenty of
trash talking among the teams),
and to have some fun during the
workday. “We do things like this
several times a year – cookouts,
various contests, and events,”
says Jim Malkus, president and
CEO of Indoff. “We like to have
some fun around here. It’s a
professional environment, but
we’re all very supportive of each
other. We have a real familial
feel – we’ve had some not-nice
people that we unfortunately
hired throughout the years, and
they tend to weed themselves out
pretty quickly.”
It’s an environment that the
Indoff staffers really appreciate. Yolanda Thompson, who
is on her second stint with the
company, says it’s the people
who work there who make it so
unique. “The people here are just
great,” Thompson says. “We’re
all fun, and we’re like a big family that supports each other in
everything we do. We make fun
of each other a lot, and it’s all in
good fun.”
This laid-back and comfortable environment becomes
downright competitive on pumpkin decorating day. And the Road
Tour crew is put in the unenviable position of judging the contest and picking a winner. While
all of the groups came through
with creative entries, it was the
credit department’s “Bob” that
took the top prize today. “We all
have a lot of fun with these types
of days,” Malkus said. “They go
a long way toward creating the
type of fun and supportive teamwork environment that we want
here.”
Day Four
Tweet Tracker
@asi_joehaley Conrad Franey from
GatewayCDI is rockin the orange
Chucks.
@ASI_melinda @ASI_AndyCohen
wouldn’t let us pull over to see the
world’s largest wind chime, standing
at 55 ft tall. #whatagrump
@ASI_melinda Pumpkin decorating
at @Indoff. I get to help judge the
pumpkin contest!
@ASI_AndyCohen OK people in St.
Louis: suggestions for a good BBQ
place for dinner?
87
Road Tour
DAY FIVE
Day Five
Tweet Tracker
DALLAS
@ASI_melinda Finally, a hotel with
great pillows! Thank you, Warwick
Dallas!
@ASI_AndyCohen @asi_joehaley
throws back a bacon donut at Tic Toc
in Dallas.
@ASI_AndyCohen Forrest and Kelly
from Safeguard in Dallas celebrate a
sunny day at their company.
@ASI_joehaley @ASI_AndyCohen
and @ASI_melinda are working out
at Numo. Not well.
Practicing What They
Preach
A
s the Road Tour came
tripping into Tic Toc,
(literally tripping over
the leashes of several dogs
whose owners took advantage
of the company’s open-door
policy for canines), we’re
greeted in the company’s cavernous “living room” by Tic
Toc CEO Paul Gittemeier. The
living room is part party room
(there’s a pool table covered
with a desktop on one end,
flanked by giant Star Wars
figures; the other end holds a
tricked-out kitchen, which this
morning is serving up decadent
donuts and mimosas; down
the hall, you’ll find a disco
ball) and part conference area,
noted by the cozy couches and
chairs where the company’s 40
employees regularly convene
to brainstorm.
On this particular morning, the room is being used
ostensibly for work, as Gittemeier gathers the troops for
a weekly business update. Tic
Toc, which operates more like
a boutique advertising agency
than a typical promotional
products distributor, does a lot
of work in the area of employee
recognition programs, including awards, wellness and retention, and it’s clear that this is a
company that practices what it
preaches.
At one point, Renee
Shreeves, director of human
resources, stands, while holding her chihuahua, to give a
report on the Tic Toc Toberthon, a wellness program
whereby employees get points
for doing physical activities,
like biking to work, running
or kayaking. The employee
with the most points will win a
monetary prize. “We try to do
some kind of fun competition
88
Left: Tic Toc’s Paul Gittemeier poses with his company’s Black Ops surfboard promo.
Top: Safeguard’s Forrest Fairley and Kelly Santos celebrate a sunny day at their
company. Bottom: Working out with the crew at Numo.
each month to keep everyone’s
energy up,” Shreeves says.
“This is a high-energy, creative
group, and they like competition.”
A Sunny Day at
Safeguard
Walking into the offices of Top
40 distributor firm Safeguard
Business Systems in downtown Dallas, the Road Tour
Crew is greeted by imprinted
sunglasses, employees decked
out in various neon-colored
shirts, and a conference room
decorated with summer-like
signs and decals. One sign
gives away the theme of the
day: “It’s Always a Sunny Day
at Safeguard,” it reads, giving
the about 100 employees in
this office the freedom to wear
shades, shorts and jeans, and
bright t-shirts all day long.
“We have an all-welcoming
environment here,” says For-
rest Fairley, who is the director
of Safeguard’s promotional
products and apparel division.
“Everybody’s treated the same
and everybody’s contribution
counts. We like to have some
fun on a day like this to give
employees a unique environment that they can be comfortable in.”
That environment also
includes plenty of recognition and communication for
employees. On this October
Friday, Safeguard is holding
its quarterly company meeting, at which employees are
informed about the organization’s financials over the past
quarter, thanked for their
contributions, and top staffers
are honored as nominees for
the Employee of the Quarter
award. That type of teamworkoriented and motivated corporate culture is exactly what
JJ Sorrenti, president of Safe-
guard, wants for the company.
After speaking to the group
during the quarterly meeting, revealing new initiatives
as well as how the company
performed financially, Sorrenti
says, “Thank you guys. Great
quarter.”
If it sounds like a football
coach thanking his team after a
good game, well, that’s exactly
how Sorrenti wants it. “We
have a very energetic group
here,” he says, after the quarterly meeting, sitting down for
some Domino’s pizza that has
been provided for the whole
company. “The pace of our
business is very fast, and we try
to be as collaborative as possible. We all jump in and will do
anything to help the company
succeed.”
Heart-Racing Stop in
Kaufman
“She is mean is what she is, so
get ready.” That’s how Numo
vice president Jim Martin
introduces us to Stella, a muscular woman clad in black and
white tie-dyed leggings and a
pink spandex tank top. Turns
out the Road Trip rolled upon
Numo, a supplier based in
Kaufman, TX, just as employees were about to take one of
their three-times-weekly exercise classes.
Needless to say, this isn’t
the type of activity we were
expecting to engage in when we
arrived at Kaufman, a sleepy
DECEMBER 2013 | COUNSELOR
Check out the Instagram photos of Stella (a.k.a.
The Drill Sergeant) working out with the Numo
crew at www.CounselorMag.com/counselortour.
little town outside of Dallas
that has only 7,000 residents.
So how did all of this madness
start? “We’re not a rah-rah kind
of place here, but we want to
take care of our people for the
long haul,” says Martin, whose
in-laws bought the 50-year-old
Numo.
It’s not easy to attract
employees to come to Kaufman
to work, so Numo provides
them with 100% fully paid
healthcare, among other perks.
But to fight the double-digit
annual increases in healthcare
premiums, Martin and the
company had to do something.
“The age of our people keeps
going up, and so does the cost
of their healthcare,” he said. So
what did the company do? It
got employees healthy.
Besides bringing in Stella
three times per week, (about 50
of the facility’s 100 employees
typically participate in a class),
the employees play volleyball
or basketball during scheduled break times. And twice a
week, Numo brings in a nurse
who holds a free clinic to diagnose medical issues (like strep
throat), and monitor employees’ blood pressure, Body Mass
Index, weight, and blood sugar
levels—all for free. “We had
people who were pre-diabetic
or had other health issues they
didn’t know about before they
started going to the clinic,”
Martin says. “This has been
great, because we can help them
before they really get sick.”
These wellness measures
have helped Numo achieve its
original goal, Martin says, of
helping the company save on
the cost of health insurance
claims. But it has also helped
lead the company to a great
fiscal year (it ended at the end
of September), with sales ending up significantly up over
the previous year. At the same
time, employee retention is
soaring. “This thing has really
taken off,” Martin says.
COUNSELOR | DECEMBER 2013
The CMD office in Portland includes lounge chairs in the lunchroom, a loft-like atmosphere, and a sundeck that the company’s Phil
Reilly, Heather Comerford and Jeff Zabel enjoy even on a Sunday.
DAY SIX
PORTLAND
Collaboration and
Creativity
I
t may be a Sunday afternoon when the Road Tour
crew pulled into Portland, OR, but we are quickly
energized by the creative
environment of CMD. Not
your traditional advertising
specialty company, CMD is
built to be an integrated marketing agency and it takes its
integrated nature very seriously. “We offer print, digital, promotions, film, video,
events and much more as a
full-service marketing agency,”
says Phil Reilly, president of
CMD, which records about $50
million a year in revenues, of
which promotional marketing
accounts for about 20%. “We
want to be collaborative and
consultative with clients.”
And, to do that, CMD
operates in its own highlycollaborative environment.
While the company has about
150 employees in its Portland
space, it houses 11 conference
rooms (all named after board
games like Battleship, Clue,
Pictionary, and Cranium).
Also, staffers work in open-air
areas to foster collaboration.
“We do a lot of sharing
here,” says Jeff Zabel, managing director of CMD’s promotional marketing division.
“We really brainstorm ideas
for clients, and work with each
other all the time to come up
with creative solutions. It’s a
true team atmosphere.”
It’s also a fun atmosphere
where employees gather frequently outside of the office.
There are company sponsored
softball games, bowling outings, charity drives, beer tastings and soccer games.
CMD, which has a decidedly dress-down culture, is
also incredibly welcoming
to its employees’ children.
Every year on Halloween, the
office turns into every child’s
trick-or-treating dream. From
3:30 to 5:30 on Halloween,
every employee’s child can
come to the office for pump-
kin carving, face painting,
costume competitions, and
yes, trick-or-treating at every
workspace in the whole place.
“I always bring my kids,” says
Heather Comerford, who’s
in charge of sales for CMD’s
promotional division and who
joined us in the office on Sunday afternoon. “They love it.
It’s easier than going house to
house to get all that candy.”
Employees of CMD can also
bring their children to the office
when they’re working extra
hours on the weekend – and it’s
not like going to most parents’
offices.
Day Six
Tweet Tracker
@ASI_melinda Some CMD employees have their own chicken coops
and sell their eggs at work.
@ASI_AndyCohen Thanks to
CMD’s Phil, Jeff and Heather for
opening up the Portland office to the
#counselortour on a Sunday. Oh, and
the donuts too...
@asi_joehaley The last state on
our Counselor BPTW road tour. Hello
Washington.
89
Road Tour
DAY SEVEN
SEATTLE
Moving in With the
Catalyst Crew
T
hings are a bit chaotic this
Monday morning at Catalyst Marketing in Seattle.
The company’s 23 employees
just moved into a brand new
work space and the bright new
office – overlooking a river that
feeds into Puget Sound – is bustling with activity. Some employees are milling through boxes
while others are fixated on the
scene outside, where police are
conducting search-and-rescue
drills in the river as college crew
teams row by. While some workers may be a bit harried amidst
such a chaotic scene, employees
at Catalyst, which counts companies like T-Mobile and Starbucks
as clients, are laughing and happily going about their business.
There’s a reason for that:
The company, founded 14 years
ago by Tom Havens, specifically
hires happy people, according to
HR Manager Cathy Sapiro. “We
take our work very seriously but
we don’t take ourselves seriously at all,” she says. “That’s
why all of our job postings say
that having a ‘sense of humor’ is
very important here.”
Apparently the company
has found no shortage of happy
applicants. The Catalyst’s director of finance, Jason Freilinger,
regularly sings at his desk (today
he’s belting out the Temptations’
‘My Girl’) and has a jar out for
tips. Another employee is busily
dressing an armoured Knight set
up in the foyer in Catalyst logoed
gear. And a top sales rep takes
time out of his day to have a pillow fight with one of our editors
on one of the company’s new
plush couches.
According to Sapiro, Havens
fosters this playful spirit by taking employees on group outings.
On one recent day, the crew took
an off-site cooking class, prepar90
Left: The comfy couches in the middle of the Catalyst office. Top Right: SanMar’s Jeremy Lott and one of his company’s “family
values.” Bottom Right: A custom promo creation at Greater China.
ing pesto-stuffed chicken and
enchiladas for a youth shelter.
“These kinds of things get people
to break out of their teams and
talk to people they wouldn’t otherwise talk to,” Sapiro says.
As a result, she says, employees at the company might find
themselves staying late to help
someone on a project, “even
if they’re not on their team.
“We’re not one of those companies where people are in
competition with one another,”
she says. “People just help each
other out, period.”
Gourmet Lunch
At SanMar
The crew knew its visit to SanMar would be different than the
rest a few hours before we were
slated to visit when a specific
email came through. The subject line: Lunch Options – Your
Order? It continued in the body
of the email: “Today is sushi
day in the SanMar Cafe, which
means yummy food, but longer
lines.”
Were we going to a gourmet
restaurant for lunch or just visiting one of the largest supplier
companies in the ad specialty
market? Well, the answer is
kind of both, because SanMar
has one of the most impressive
corporate cafeterias you’ll ever
see. On this day, there was sushi
ranging from citrus salmon,
spicy crab and albacore rolls to
tuna, salmon and inari nigiri.
And, catering to the non-sushi
eaters on staff, there’s also a
grill complete with sandwiches
(hot and cold), burgers, an
array of delectable side dishes,
and a complete salad and soup
bar with more options than
people could possibly sample.
The cafeteria, where the
Day Seven
Tweet Tracker
@ASI_AndyCohen Margaritas
served regularly at Catalyst.
@ASI_melinda Best cafeteria lunch
ever at SanMar.
@ASI_AndyCohen @asi_melinda
takes a guitar to the head at Greater
China in Bellevue, WA.
@ASI_AndyCohen Mission accomplished. Road Tour complete. Thanks
to 15 great companies for opening
their doors to us.
food is highly subsidized by
SanMar for its employees, so
ultimately, they’re just paying
for the cost of the food’s ingredients (averaging around $5
per meal), is a centerpiece of
the company’s headquarters in
Issaquah, WA, just outside of
Seattle. “We put a lot of thought
and effort and investment into
the cafeteria, so it would be a
place where people wanted to
spend time and enjoy eating,”
said Marty Lott, founder of SanMar. “It has real chefs cooking
real meals, not just churning
out mass quantities of food.
Seattle is a hot area for workers
these days, so we have to compete with other big companies
for talent. This cafeteria is one
way to do that.”
But SanMar, which has
about 500 employees in its
headquarters office and about
3,000 throughout the country,
has many other attractive characteristics to job candidates.
The family-oriented company
has a gym on-site (complete
with locker rooms), hosts many
fundraising and charitable
events throughout the year,
DECEMBER 2013 | COUNSELOR
Who wins the pillow fight at Catalyst
Marketing? Go to www.CounselorMag.com/
counselortour to watch the video.
and offers its customer service people a
telecommuting program that allows them
to work from home.
“The flexible workplace has been really
successful for us,” says Jeremy Lott, president of SanMar and Marty’s son. “There are
about 350 total telecommuters, and it has
allowed us to identify and hire some really
great people that otherwise wouldn’t be able
to work for us in our offices simply because
of proximity. We didn’t want that to be a reason that we couldn’t hire a good person.”
And, when somebody begins working
for SanMar, they tend to stay. The company’s retention rate is in the high-90s,
and it has never had a layoff – ever! – in
its history. “We work hard at retaining
employees and being a great workplace,”
says Jeremy Lott, who personally meets
with every new hire when they start working at SanMar. “We’re a growing company,
so there is opportunity for advancement,
and it’s a comfortable place to work. We’re
a large company, but we care a lot about
our people. They see that and I think they
stay because of that.”
chance to work on creative products, that
gets Greater China’s employees energized. Recent custom ventures include a
cooler shaped like a basketball for Miller
Beer and a wicked-cool coffee canister for
Dunkin Donuts.
“Every day here is an adventure,” says
Chris Ritchie, an account executive for the
company for more than seven years.
It’s also a place that likes to reward
employees and celebrate big wins. An Asian
gong sits in the middle of the office, and it
gets rung any time an order is closed or a
project is finished. Plus, the company gives
out top sales awards throughout the year.
And, with a bar and a putting green in
the office – everything in the Greater China
office has a golf theme, it seems – employees are also allowed to let loose. “It’s a
teamwork focused environment here,” says
St. Peter. “We depend on each other and we
have a lot of fun doing it.”
BOOTH #755
Custom-Made Finale
In Seattle
It’s Monday afternoon when the Road Trip
crew rolls into Greater China, a supplier
of mostly custom products based in Bellevue, WA, that represents the final stop of
the Road Tour. And while most executives
might be hunkered down planning out the
work week, Vice President Mark St. Peter is
hunkered down at the company’s bar, pouring scotch for our crew members.
Don’t be mistaken, though: His brief
impromptu happy hour doesn’t signal the
end of the work day. Oftentimes, the afternoon is just the beginning for the 35-member crew of the Bellevue office (there are
an additional 15 employees in Shanghai,
China). Since 80% of the company’s products are custom-made and sourced in Asia,
the company’s team members spend a lot of
late nights on the phone speaking to Chinabased employees and factory partners.
Often leading the charge is company CEO
and founder Ben Zhang, who started the
company in 1995.
“No matter what we’re working on, Ben
jumps in and helps, even if it’s jumping in
on a factory call at 10 p.m.,” says Kim Robertson, a sales rep for the fast-growing company for the past 15 years.
It’s that kind of dedication – plus the
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