Earn their trust
It’s not that surprising that Famous’ first value is family. Blaushild is the third-generation leader of the company. His grandfather, Hiram, founded Famous, and his father, Jay, is still the company’s chairman.
Although Famous is a family-owned business, Blaushild says it’s important to let his employees, customers and suppliers know that no matter what their last name may be, they are all part of the Famous family.
“We try to do the right thing all the time by our people,” he says. Blaushild backs up his claim by creating initiatives like FamousFamily Night, a popular event in which the company reimburses its employees for spending time with their families. Whether it’s bowling, a movie or just a dinner out, Famous will pick up (or at least help with) the tab.
Blaushild also reinforces his emphasis on strengthening family ties by sending out McDonald’s gift certificates to the participants of a coloring contest for the children of his employees and customers.
Of course, it’s easy to be a big, happy family when things are going well. The key to maintaining this value is keeping everyone’s spirits high even when dark skies are on the horizon.
“When times are tough, we don’t get rid of a picnic,” Blaushild says.
His employees believe in that because of Blaushild’s second core value: trust. Blaushild says that earning trust is the simplest thing in the world.
“To gain someone’s trust, if you make a promise, you keep it,” he says. “If you tell someone you’re going to do something, you do it.If you make a mistake, you apologize and you move on. If you’re doing the right things and you’re doing what you say you’re goingto do and if you do that every day, all the time, and you do it long enough, then you will earn their trust.”
Blaushild says earning the trust of your employees and your customers is critical to a company’s success and the benefits are far-reaching. For instance, say your company has an open position and eight interested internal candidates. That can be a problematic situation, but if you have been building employees’ trust by steering the company in a steady, consistent direction, explainingt o the seven employees who didn’t get the job why they weren’t chosen will be a lot easier.
“Instead of all of a sudden putting together their resume and going to look for another job, they trust us,” he says. “They know we’re doing the right thing for the company, and many times, the right thing for them and their career at that specific time.”
