At the Inc. 500 Conference: Finding the Heart of Business
October 10th, 2007By Cathy Dunkin
In between speeches by authors of best-selling business books and humorous “How I Did It” stories of entrepreneurs following their dreams to fame and fortune, I found the real heart and message of the recent Inc. 500 conference.
It wasn’t in the words of a CEO with a multi-million dollar fortune, nor those from a company manager offering a trendy new idea about employee retention. The most compelling seminar in an idea-packed conference showed up in three unassuming employees who spoke about their New York City company. They told in simple, heartfelt words what it means to work for an employer who cares.
Mike Harper, Bruce Howard and Sherry James of CitiStorage joined their boss, Elaine Brodsky, to tell their stories. The company is familiar to many as the focus of CitiStorage CEO’s Norm Brodsky who writes a regular column in Inc. Magazine.
For example, after flunking a mandatory random drug screening, one of the employees got a second chance to take the test a month later. He was the only one in the whole company who passed the second time, has stayed clean and has advanced to account services manager.
A single mother who enjoyed numbers, took advantage of being able to bring a sick child to the office, used the tuition reimbursement program to get a degree, and today is vice president of accounting.
In the audience, the roomful of company leaders – who had been discussing the rising cost of benefits throughout the Inc. conference – grew silent when they heard that CitiStorage actually matches 160 percent of their employees’ 401K contributions. A payroll service CEO in the audience noted he would have to update his software to handle a match like that; he had never had anyone request more than 100 percent.
We all could see the pride in the faces of these three productive employees of CitiStorage. Elaine, their company’s VP, was appreciative but low-key in her acknowledgement of their thanks and loyalty.
Regular Inc. readers will know that Norman and Elaine Brodsky for many months worked to sell their company. The deal fell apart when the prospective owners wouldn’t guarantee to maintain the company’s special culture after closing.
You could also see the obvious relief in those three employees’ faces. They’re likely to recruit their friends to work and all retire together at CitiStorage.
