Joyce West, Client Relationship Manager
Recently I read a front page article in my local newspaper about a company that has just become an employee-owned business. This company employs about 400 people and produces food-cutting and dicing machines. The company had been family-owned for more than a century and decided to become employee-owned through an Employee Stock Option Plan (ESOP).
This article caught my interest because of the similarities with The Sidwell Company.
Sidwell was founded in 1927 (almost 90 years) by Joe Sidwell and continued to be family-owned until 1990 when the ESOP was established with majority employee-ownership. Over the next several years, Sidwell employees earned shares of Sidwell stock and we became a fully employee-owned business in 1998. According to the National Center for Employee Ownership, Sidwell is one of almost 7,000 companies nationwide employing 13.5 million people in the U.S., that are an ESOP.
As an ESOP, Sidwell is governed by a Board of Directors. The company is run by an elected President and Vice President. We have a yearly shareholders meeting to review the results of each fiscal year and ongoing sharing of new technology developments, new sales, and project production status. This structure promotes a different, more engaging culture than a company with a single owner or boss. At Sidwell, we are all owners; it is our company. Each employee-owner has their own expertise and job to fulfill as a GIS production manager, programmer/analyst, help desk staff, GIS Account Manager, or other role. Our work environment is characterized by teamwork and collaboration with each person recognizing and accepting responsibilities in their job as well as to each other.
As owners of The Sidwell Company, we have a vested interest in the success of our company. We have more to gain or to lose in the success of each project and the success of our company. Our success is driven by our pride of ownership and translates to our strong desire for client success. We have a sense of pride knowing that what we work on has our name on it; it is part of us. Our hearts and our minds recognize our legacy and we strive to fulfill our clientsโ needs. We strive to produce solutions for our clientsโ benefit.
For you, our client, every time you call us or work with one of our staff you are communicating with an owner, not just an employee. This makes a difference.
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