What do business trips to Europe and potato salad have in common? Mark Sandridge can explain it.
Each year, the CEO of Medina-based Sandridge Food Corp. travels to Europe with members of his to to look for ways to implement more efficient processes, adopt new techniques and purchase food preparation equipment that isn’t available in the United States.
Back home, Sandridge creates a corporate culture at the refrigerated food manufacturer by putting his company’s core values on paper for all 350 employees to understand.
The company posted between $45 million and $65 million in 2005 revenue, and is projecting 12 percent growth for its core business in 2006.
Smart Business spoke with Sandridge about how he fosters new ideas and shares his company’s second-generation values with employees.
Encourage participation.
I find the best people in (each) department and let them be the authorities on the subject matter, and I take most of my advice from them. Every time I’ve gone to Europe for the last 10 or 11 years, I take four or five people with me because it just makes things a lot simpler for me. (We are) probably the best students in our industry, and our management team has pushed to become more educated on the subjects in our field.
(Traveling to Europe is) a great training ground for our staff. Germany doesn’t allow preservatives in their foods. Why wouldn’t we want to go there and learn more about it? We bring those concepts back here and implement them.
Stick to your goal.
You really have to establish what you want to stand for as a CEO. You have to adapt a style that fits you, and then you take a look around and see where the opportunities are.
You have to be OK with not selling certain products to certain people. We get requests every single day to build frozen food — ‘I want your stuff fresh, and then I’ll freeze it later.’ We tell them, ‘No, I’m sorry, we can’t do business with you.’
That’s hard sometimes when you’re not making the kind of money that you want to, but in the long run, it’s the right answer.
Foster growth.
You’re never going to grow in this competitive environment if you don’t step out on the edge and include the people who are really helping make the company grow. It’s not about my being the most educated person in the company; I’m not.
I don’t run the company; we as a group run the company. I am all about continuing education and sharing that.
You can always create sales but you can’t create profits. If you aren’t figuring out what the next new product is that the consumer wants and how to make it better, you’re just going to be a statistic.
Our goal is to really create ‘wow’ kinds of products for our consumers, and if it isn’t ‘wow,’ then it isn’t something we like to do. … If they bring me a new product out of our research and development department, and if it isn’t the best of the best, then we aren’t going to put it out there. There are too many me-toos out there.
Create a strategic plan.
Seven or eight years ago, I employed a company to put a strategic plan together. The book was six inches thick, and I kept trying to implement it. Finally, I put it on the shelf behind my desk because it was too difficult. I was looking for something that was more sophisticated but simpler.
Some of the executives kept asking me, ‘I’m not sure where to go here,’ and ‘When do I know when to do that?’ And I said, ‘I’m glad you’re asking me that because that tells me we don’t have enough direction for you.’ That was four or five years ago, and I knew I really had to work on a different way to create this strategic plan.
I read the book, ‘Good to Great,’ by Jim Collins, and he writes about strategic planning and a simple way to do it. His disciple was Verne Harnish, who wrote ‘Mastering the Rockefeller Habits.’ We got ahold of Harnish, and we’ve been working with him and his associates for two-and-a-half years now (on the company’s core values and strategic plan.)
It’s the best thing I’ve ever done for the company because it is a very simple strategic plan but we can implement it. We were doing these things (in the past) but had never captured them on paper.
(Today) we have a defined strategic plan that allows us to know annually what our goals are, and then we break it down into quarters. Everybody has a specific task.
Put core values on paper.
People have a tendency to want to know where they’re going and, when they’re confused, what value they should follow. What we say is, if you’re ever confused, just go back to the core values and make that be the guiding light for you. It’s been very well-received.
Our core values are ethics and integrity, a caring employee environment, always improving, excellence in reputation and responsive customer service.
We’re getting better, more consistent product out today because employees aren’t afraid to do what is on paper, and if they’re ever challenged, all they have to do is say, ‘I followed this particular core value.’
I can’t be there all the time when they’re making decisions. If they’re really torn with the question in front of them, they can always go back to the core values. If it’s going to have a negative impact, then they already have the answer right there; they don’t get to do it.
Stand behind your principles.
If you break a core value, you should be terminated for it. (That situation occurred) recently (with) a member of the executive team. It was extremely difficult but we did it.
You don’t get to pick and choose when you use your core values. That’s the value of our executive team today. It takes awhile to get the right kind of people in there who believe those core values but it has very much strengthened our company.
HOW TO REACH: Sandridge Food Corp., (330) 725-2348 or www.sandridge.com
