J.R. Caskey Site Development – 2nd Cohort, 2017
When we were invited to participate in the SPQA ‘OTW’ program, I honestly had never heard of it before. I was honored to be chosen as one of six small businesses in the state of Virginia. I was intrigued by the unknown and always up for a challenge. Boy was that an under-statement! The Baldrige Discovery program Self-Assessment was exactly that – a Self Discovery. For a small business owner, just coming through an economic downturn, it was a perfect time to make myself, take the time to look within the business, exposing our core strengths and weaknesses to others to critique for growth purposes. The results were harsh, but made easier to take with the help and support of great mentors. Donna Douglas was instrumental in providing every available resource from her cache of contacts. The new friends and resources that I’ve made through the program continue to offer me encouragement and support as well as constructive feedback- some call, some email, and some we have lunch!
The feedback I received did help me analyze to improve our organizational performance by thinking on a broader scale even for a small company. (Baldrige seemed like it was for ‘big companies’.) We looked at improvements that weren’t just based on revenue. We set higher goals and we have achieved them. We set a goal to add a new service, and we have and it has been successful. We set a goal to broaden our geographic service area. We have since become certified in North Carolina and have been performing our new service, Soil Stabilization in North Carolina for the last two years and have been very successful. Our experience and hard work through the OTW program made us get up out of our ‘Comfort Zone’ and come up with a way to differentiate ourselves from our competition.
Thank you for the ‘Push’! And Donna, I know sometimes it was more like a ‘Pull’!”
Ginger Caskey, President, J.R.Caskey, Oilville, VA.
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