During Louisville’s recent Family Business Awards ceremony, the chairman of Louisville Slugger Museum & Factory revealed his career’s biggest highlight – something that occurred in 1984 and impacts him today.
On that date Jack Hillerich listened to a presentation by management consultant W. Edwards Deming about good versus unproductive workers. Deming’s opinion, Hillerich recalled, bucked the prevailing view that 60 percent are good or willing, 20 percent are on the fence, and 20 percent are bad workers.
“Dr. Deming said workers have a right to enjoy their work,” Hillerich said. “In the four years I went to business college, I never heard the word ‘joy’ once. The bottom line is, if you don’t enjoy your work, how can you be proud of what you do? If you’re not proud of what you do, how can you be productive? If you don’t enjoy what you do, how can you be creative?”
“My whole career has been (about finding) ways to bring joy to the company and the people who work with me,” he said. “Because working with people who are joyful or happy is really great.”
Values Lead to Success
As a family business, Advanced Global Communications (AGC) embraces these ideas. We credit them for receiving a 2022 Small Business of the Year honor during the ceremony, held May 24 at The Olmsted.
The honor reflects AGC’s ability to outperform larger firms while staying true to core values (for more, visit About). Louisville Business First , the University of Louisville’s College of Business and UL’s Family Business Center presented the award to AGC co-founder Chris Keller.
During the ceremony, Chris Keller stressed the importance of treating employees with respect while delivering “white-glove” service to clients, echoing Deming’s advice.
“We’re excited about cutting-edge developments within our industry,” Keller said. “We see these developments before the public and even most competitors. But we look deeper to see how they can be applied to clients’ needs.”
More Awards Coverage
A special section with more coverage of the Family Business Awards ceremony, including profiles of each Small Business of the Year honoree, is available to Louisville Business First subscribers. In the section, Chris and Patrick Keller stated what the future holds for business telecom and security-system integration.