An Open Letter to Business Owners, Managers, and Team Leaders

April 4, 2018

Dear Colleagues,

As we continue to see exponential growth here at Apex United Corporation, I have the opportunity to express my gratitude for the hard work and dedication given from our employees throughout the years. I would like to take a moment to outline some of the responsibilities we have as business owners, managers, and team leaders to our employees. At Apex United we recognize that our success directly results from their efforts. Therefore, long-term strategy must include transparency, culture, open candor, and re-investment. The pathway to long-term success must recognize the effects on its surrounding community, the people involved, and short term goals to generate future success. In this letter I will detail points to help drive your business culture into a positive, inclusive, prospering community.

The environment that is created from a business’s culture will directly affect the performance of your workforce. An environment that extrudes stress, clutter, and dysfunction will eventually cause a downturn in productivity and morale. As leaders, creating our company’s culture must be the first block in the foundation when structuring a company. The environment it surrounds will reinforce this culture and the individual injected into the mix will complete your castle. Successful employees are uplifted from a brand that lives, eats, and breathes positive moral values that are built with its team members in mind.

Although a company’s strategy for financial success is articulated for stakeholders’s bottom line, the importance of including your employees within those plans must be understood and sought out. The difference between an average company and a thriving company is the involvement of its employees. Throughout my career I have walked into several businesses and noticed distinct auras in their atmosphere. Some places are ran by fear where you can hear a pin drop, others can be described as a clip out of Animal House where this is no structure. Finally, the sweet spot of self-managed professionals that all are on the same page who are informed and hold each other to the same standard they hold themselves. I have found these companies have weekly team meetings, building exercises, open strategy discussions, and all hold personal interests in the success of the business. In contrast, these companies have communicated their business objectives directly to employees with transparency and incentive to the future welfare of everyone involved.

In respect to the overall theme of this letter, the most important vehicle in successfully meeting our business objectives are how we reinvest. Our job as business owners and leaders are to incorporate the surrounding environment and the people who contribute to our venture into our future strategy for business growth. A stronger, well-educated, adapting workforce is the only way to combat an ever changing technology-based industry. From the systems we use to the people using them, we must stride ahead the competition and even further past changes in the market. This will show your workforce the loyalty we have in their future and the importance of their participation and dedication to our venture.

In conclusion, decision makers must ask themselves: What role do we play in our surrounding environment? Are we being transparent with our employees, giving them the opportunities to better themselves? Are we adapting to change and re-investing in our employees? Our responsibility as leaders are to create the foundation of a positive work environment, incorporating a diverse group of individuals to progress and lead our objectives to completion. At the end of the day, reinvestment and the inclusion of our employees will only produce better lives, directly resulting in better results. So if you have not already, get your team together, have open conversations, give them opportunities to grow and, most importantly, listen to what they have to say. May you have only success in all your future endeavors.

Sincerely,

Kristopher Pedersen
Marketing Strategist Manager
Apex United Corporation