Learn Why You Should do Business With These Suppliers...
In an industry based on product and price, our “Character Counts” feature puts a spotlight on a supplier’s company culture and values. There are many suppliers in our industry. What makes a good supplier great? We believe that a strong company culture, integrity and character translates into a positive buying experience for distributors. In this section, we will be featuring video and comments from our team of Suppliers, that support the all the positive things FreePromoTips and our related programs do for our industry. We encourage you to look at their lines and how they can help you be a more valuable resource for your clients. PLEASE NOTE: This a NEW feature. More content will be added after the January Trade Shows
Charley Johnson, VP for HandStands goes deep on this topic: “Company culture and values, where do you begin? How many cliché quotes can you string together from a leader of a company that talks the talk but their actions don’t back it up? As the world becomes more stressful, it makes life at home and work more stressful; they are all connected with each other. More companies are almost being forced to create a culture and atmosphere at work that helps with employee retention and helps people find some peace where they spend most of their waking hours. We all know the examples of these extremely profitable tech companies like Google showing us how to create that culture where people never want to leave, but how do you do that as a small company who doesn’t have endless resources? Another question to be asked, is it the culture that creates good employees, or hiring good people who become employees who then create the culture you are looking for? Are the “Best Places to Work” surveys unbiased enough with employees from all levels of the company chiming in to show us the truth behind a company culture? Does a good culture ensure success as a company? Does the culture of the company start at the top or can employees create the culture to help the leaders of the company take notice that it’s worth it to spend more time and money on creating a better workplace? We see many articles speaking about these great companies with great cultures but what about the other 99% that don’t get coverage? Is their culture terrible or just normal? With trying to create a better culture, are we setting ourselves up to fail with leaders who are going against who they really are? With the increasing instability of the world right now, has the bottom line become more of a focus than ever before, all the while companies speak of a better culture simply to distract their employees from what’s really going on? Depending on how you feel after asking yourself all these questions, it will be a good indicator of how you see the importance of creating a work environment that benefits employee’s inner peace and happiness in all aspects of their lives. Do you care, or don’t you? There is no right or wrong with how you answer.”
Mike Fey, shares a bit of history and what drives Fey Industries:
"My grandfather had a print shop in the basement of his house. He was approached to buy a RF heat sealing business. He bought the equipment and started the new business in 1965, which made vinyl products via RF heat sealing. A couple of years later we became part of Specialty Advertising Association International (SAAI) which was the prior name of PPAI. Through the years we have grown organically and through acquisitions which include: Reflectix, Mi Line (Molenaar) and Magna-Tel.
Fey Industries is blessed to have a high number of dedicated, long term team members. We have a prestigious group called Club Twenty-Feyve which are team members who have been with us for 25 years or more. We have an amazing group of people that deliver a hard work ethic and kindness of a small, midwestern town.
Stated simply Fey wants to create positive, lasting impressions on people with relevant, practical solutions. Elaborating on that it’s about staying relevant in an ever-changing world. Providing meaningful work to our team members who lift each other up through encouraging family values so each person can achieve their God given potential.
It’s about helping team members find fulfillment and being a bright light in this (oftentimes) dark world. It’s also about living out and affirming our company values of: accountability, continuous improvement & innovation, integrity, sense of urgency and stewardship,
Our core values are part of what we call “Fey Playbook”. I am a big football fan and I believe there are a lot of similarities between a successful business and a successful sports team. Thus, who we are, where we are going, how we are going to get there are rolled up into Fey Playbook. We have five core values which are listed here. The key is in how one elaborates on the value. For example, within accountability one of our bullet point descriptors is “We hold ourselves to a higher standard than anyone else expects” and another descriptor is “We are accountable for our words, actions, inactions and results”
• Accountability • Continuous Improvement and Innovation • Integrity • Sense of Urgency • Stewardship
We introduced Fey Playbook as part of our 50th anniversary. At that time, it was about our purpose, vision and the values. Now we are in the process of implementing a more robust version of Fey Playbook. We are working on shared beliefs and from there consistent and coordinated actions whereby we improve the customer experience.
Stewardship is one of our core values. It is important to me as we are a third-generation family business and it is about being a steward of what the first two generations have created, sacrificed and built. It’s about all the people over our first 52 years who have contributed to the success of the company.When you step back and think of all of the current and previous people who have shared their lives with us, it is humbling.
Add in my Christian faith, my life verse (John 15), my desire to be a servant leader; and the result is a passion to plant seeds, till the soil and provide nourishment so that God can reap a bountiful harvest; whereby me and my fellow team members will get to enjoy eternity together in Heaven.
In May 2017 we obtained Quality Certification Alliance Accreditation. Our decision to pursue QCA accreditation fit with who we are as company and it reflects our core values of: stewardship, accountability and continuous improvement.
It is a common thread for us as QCA Accreditation enables additional peace of mind for our customers, while helping our third-generation family business, to continually be relevant in the marketplace."