Tuesday and The Right Investments
May 13, 2008
Another week and another Tuesday is upon us, and that means another Tuesday blog. This Tuesday I started off my day at Starbucks, talk about customer loyalty. Planet Starbucks the cult of Apple, these companies owe a lot of their ascent to this very concept, (and a superior product their customers would say, thus proving my point). At any rate, Starbucks seemed like an appropriate place to get the wheels turning concerning customer loyalty.
Truth be told, I rarely ever go to Starbucks, and as a matter of fact don’t have a Mac but I see where their success lies. I digress though. The reason that I was at Starbucks on this beautiful May morning was to meet Jill Morrison from The United Way. She was outlining certain activities and going over the capabilities of the United Way, what they had to offer to the community, and more importantly how LUCRUM could get involved.
Many of us might think that charitable work is not related to customer loyalty at first but I assure it is. In the modern era of Globalization, the flat world if you will, this “think globally and act locally” mantra is very pertinent concept. Companies cannot and do not operate in a vacuum outside their communities, and if they do, the community will suffer and inevitably the company will too. No, organizations are living entities that operate within a community, the community draws from the company and vice versa, it’ a symbiotic relationship, or at least it should be.
Investing in the community around us indirectly benefits the company. Like the old saying, “the rising tide raises all the ships” well, if our community is doing better, it can only help a business. Moreover, those in the community will take notice and see that the company is not just trying to sell them something. Then they will realize that the company is just as invested in the community future as they are, and thus they will invest back into the company. It all comes back down to the Tuesday Model really. This part gets to the backbone of every relationship, which if you remember is trust. Beyond the good feeling we all get from helping others out, charitable works foster trust. Our customers will understand then that we are invested in their community, because we are meeting their expectations of giving back. Everything is integrated, the Milton Friedman concept that business sole responsibility is to maximize shareholder value is outdated and too simplistic. If we dehumanize ourselves then our customers won’t be able to relate. You can’t be loyal to what you can’t relate to. Investing back in the community feels right because it is right. It makes economic and social sense, and I am glad to see LUCRUM committing to such causes.
Giving Back - Part 3
March 28, 2008
After reading David Bowman’s blog about Giving Back and John Bostick’s, Giving Back continued, I felt the need to put in my two cents. LUCRUM is definitely committed to the community. I have seen this first hand in my three years here at LUCRUM. One fond memory of mine was in October 2006 when we combined our efforts and did a United Way Community Care Week project for the Boy Scouts. LUCRUM volunteers painted the Cub World structure at the Dan Beard Council Boy Scout Camp in Loveland, Ohio. We had LUCRUM employees and their family members volunteer to paint from 9:00am to 5:00pm. Everyone came to the camp with the assumption that the structure was just that a structure of some sort but we weren’t quite sure what it was. Imagine our surprise when we found out it was a very large cabin! Our job was to primer the cabin for the real painters to finish the job the following week. That didn’t discourage us. We were there to help and we certainly did. I have attached pictures for you to see the huge accomplishment. To this day, my daughter still talks about how she helped paint the largest cabin she has ever seen.
Giving Back - Continued
March 26, 2008
I was checking out our new blog today, and saw a post by one of our newest employees, David Bowman. It is great to hear about people in our company giving back. It is an important part of our culture and frankly, it’s one of the most special parts of living on this earth.
I guess when I think about giving, I go back to my parents and the stories that they taught me about their growing up in the Great Depression. In today’s world and the complex financial crisis that the sub-prime mortgage market has along with the recent failings of some of Wall Street’s giants, I have to admit: I still think we as a society have no clue about the real impact of what our families and relatives went through in the Great Depression. My parents were fortunate. My mother is First Generation American. Her parents immigrated from Eastern Austria-Hungary and the Ukraine shortly after the beginning of this last century. Coal-miner, shoemaker, Goodyear Rubber & Tire factory work, her parents always put food on the table and had a modest life of comfort and stability. During the Depression, they constantly had people coming to their door asking for chores. Back then, pride was 100% of your character. One never took hand-outs. You would not take “free food” even though my grandparents were willing and able to share. My father grew up the 6th child of a Southern Alabama farm family. Again, lots of people were very unfortunate in the South during the Depression. He learned to give to his neighbors and support the community. This was a practice that he continued throughout his entire life.
Fast forward over my years growing up with them. My 2 brothers and I were in Boy Scouts in our formative years. Outside of camping in the Upstate New York Adirondacks once a month, community service was the core of our activities. Weekends were spent participating in newspaper drives, helping in the neighborhood parks, cleaning up the “teen center” and many other volunteer activities. We learned to support our community.
Fast forward to today: I still have it in my blood. LUCRUM is committed to participating in Community Service through providing 4 approaches: economic, leadership, professional, and material assistance to local and regional organizations. Economic simply means donated cash. Leadership is where people in our firm invest their time in guiding, assisting, participating in community organizations. Professional is where LUCRUM provides consulting, web development, and general software development services. LUCRUM’s community support initiatives have recently included: The United Way(www.uwgc.org) and the Tocqueville Society Campaign, the Central Clinic (www.centralclinic.org), the Boy Scouts(www.danbeard.org), the Evans’ Scholar Golf Outing, the Epilepsy Foundation, the Cincinnati Art Museum (www.cincinnatiartmuseum.org), the Fine Arts Fund (www.fineartsfund.org) and their new Technology Sector campaign, and the National Father-Son Tennis Tournaments to name a few. As you can imagine, it’s contagious with our employees and their commitment to the community amplifies ours.
So, “thank-you” David Bowman. “Thank-you” to all of our LUCRUM professionals in their commitment in supporting our community.
Sphere: Related ContentGiving Back
March 19, 2008
The purpose of this post is twofold. First, I want to use this platform to promote an upcoming charitable event that I am involved in organizing. It is a pancake breakfast that is going to be held this Saturday, March 22nd, at F&S Harley Davidson in Dayton, Ohio. The event is being held to raise money for the Epilepsy Foundation of Western Ohio, a group with which I am proud to be involved. It is going to be from 8:00am to 11:00am. It should be great fun, and if you are interested in finding out more or RSVP’ing for the event - visit PancakesPancakes.com I hope you can join the fun and contribute to a great cause in the process.
More importantly is the second purpose of my post, which is to talk about how rewarding it is to work at a place that encourages employees to get involved in making the community better. During my short time here at LUCRUM, I have been encouraged to continue my work with the Epilepsy Foundation. Many of my co-workers have gotten involved as well. It has been very moving to get such an overwhelmingly positive response from people whom I just recently met. Many are even getting up early on Saturday morning - sacrificing free time - to come to Dayton for the pancake breakfast. Pretty amazing. What’s more, shortly after starting here, I learned that LUCRUM is actively involved with supporting the Epilepsy Foundation here in Cincinnati - a coincidence that made me feel even better about my choice to come to work here. From the Fine Arts Fund to the Boy Scouts to countless other community organizations, we demonstrate our commitment by contributing time, money, and effort to the cause.
Some will ask “Does this take away from profitable, billable time?” Yes, of course. However, the value of giving far outweighs the cost of some billable hours here and there. It adds meaning to our work and out lives. This is something that makes our company unique. I am thankful to senior management for their commitment to the community, and their willingness to let everyone make a difference. I appreciate it, and I just wanted to let you know. Not only to I love the work I get to do, I am proud of where I get do it.
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