Evergreen Journal by Tugboat Institute Tugboat Institute Members & Evergreen Thought Leaders

When Steve Doerfler and his partner bought out their boss at Metalcraft in 2006, they knew that they would have to work hard and overcome obstacles to help their new company grow and thrive. Many of them, however, both professional and personal, were entirely unexpected and unique.
In this Tugboat Institute® talk, Steve shares his journey of leadership through the buyout, several years as President, over a decade more as CEO, and now as Chairman. Although it has not been easy, it has shaped him as a leader and, he believes, made him better.
Listen and be inspired to turn your challenges into vehicles to strength and transformation.
 

For CEOs, and even more so for company founders, the prospect of stepping out of leadership, handing the reins over to your successor, and letting go of the company you have poured your heart into for years can be a challenge. Especially for Evergreen® leaders, who tend to be humble and gritty, their work has been a labor of love; they are so heavily invested in the success of their team, their team’s families, and their company that trusting it will be ok without them is almost akin to watching children go out into the world independently. But it must and will happen to all leaders.
In this Tugboat Institute® talk, Kris Maynard, founder and Executive Chairman of Cathedral Holdings, shares his own experience around this moment in his leadership journey. As a founder, he chose to step into the role of Executive Chair first, to ensure that the transition was smooth and gradual, but the end result is the same; someone else is in charge now. His story will shed light on this process for leaders who are looking toward this transition, and while his lessons learned will not make it easy, they will certainly help prevent surprises and prepare you for some of the more unexpected aspects. 
Listen and be inspired to prepare for and thoughtfully shape your own transition out of leadership, when the time comes.
 

In 2022, at Tugboat Institute® Gathering of Teams, Tugboat CEO Dave Whorton shared a talk entitled On Purpose. At the time, we were approaching our ten-year anniversary and our Evergreen® community had grown and matured a great deal. Everything Dave, and all of us at Tugboat Institute, had learned from our incredible members and friends over the years had confirmed Dave’s thinking about the power of the Evergreen company back in 2013, when he set out to create Tugboat. As he honed his vision and planning for the future of this important group, he reconsidered the Evergreen 7Ps® principles and decided it was time to revise our definition of Purpose.
We have decided to re-share this important talk two years later, because our community continues to grow and our circle of friends and followers is growing quickly as well. Purpose lies at the heart of what it means to be an Evergreen leader and company. Whether you watch this as a re-fresh, as a boost and confirmation for the hard work you are doing leading your company, or as an introduction to the values and thinking that collectively guides us, it will be an inspirational twenty minutes.
Listen and be (re-)inspired by the power of the Evergreen movement.
 

Evergreen® companies, who value their teams and put People First, believe deeply in the importance of a strong culture. However, the critical value of a strong culture is not simply a matter of faith. In this Tugboat Institute® talk, Oliver Staehelin shares concrete data around the specific, strategic advantages a strong culture can give a company. In a world where competition for great talent is not going to ease anytime soon, this is not an optional undertaking for the company that wants to retain a strong team over the long term.
Oliver was an early member of Tugboat Institute, while he was leading the culture assessment company he co-founded with Stanford Professor Charles O’Reilly, Pomello. His early career and all of his subsequent work confirmed for him that culture is not a ‘soft’ topic, nor are its benefits immeasurable. 
Listen and be inspired to transform your company’s culture into one of its greatest strategic advantages.
 

It is rare and challenging for businesses to last beyond the first generation of ownership and leadership, and rarer still for them to last into the third generation and beyond. There are many reasons for this, but a common one is that a company, once it has created its breakout, successful product, will cease to innovate and change. When vigilance on this front diminishes, it is nearly impossible for a company to remain competitive and survive. 
When Robert Pasin started work for the very successful company his grandfather had founded, Radio Flyer, he was surprised to discover that his family’s company had fallen prey to just this. Innovation was minimal and as a result, the company was in danger of a decline. He undertook to rebuild a culture of innovation and discipline, and was remarkably successful; Radio Flyer was recently named to the top ten Fast Company list of Most Innovative Companies for 2023.
Listen to Robert’s Tugboat Institute® talk and learn what strategies he employed to turn their biggest weakness into their greatest strength.
 

Humans understand and remember best through stories. The power of a good story to make a message memorable, meaningful, and impactful cannot be overstated. In your business, therefore, telling the story of your company effectively and well is crucial. This is doubly true for the Evergreen® business, whose story communicates the Purpose that drives their existence and the values that define their team, operations, goals, and culture. 
In this Tugboat Institute® talk, storytelling strategist Kelly D. Parker addresses the why and the how of great storytelling. She provides us with a deep understanding of the importance of telling your story right, as well as specific strategies to employ as you tackle this important project. Most importantly, especially for the values-driven Evergreen company, she explains that the job of telling your company’s story – clearly  and authentically – is not simply the job of the marketing team or even the leadership team, but rather of every person in the organization. 
Listen and be inspired to tell your company’s story even more effectively than you are today.