The Johnson Family Doctrine

Use this doctrine as a template to shape your family business values and help eliminate some of the iherent pressures of management in a family owned business.

The Johnson family lead by Ken Johnson (3rd generation) have built a reputation in the industry for fairness and integrity. The company was founded by Kens Grandfather in 1917. The family believes that they must strive to reach the status of Employer of Choice by treating their employees with respect and recognizing their contributions to the companys success not only with praise but also with promotion and monetary rewards. Human resources must play a leading role in this endeavor. The company profit sharing plan is generous to employees but is only one vehicle for recognition. Ken wants to carry on the family and business tradition including the culture shift that had begun just prior to his appointment as President in 2005. A shift more toward a family oriented, employee recognition environment that encourages individual growth, empowerment, development, continuous improvement and an attitude for winning. The family philosophy which is intended to be supported by the management is very simple. Create an environment that makes people want to come to work, an environment of fun being at work and an environment that encourages people to reach their maximum potential. It is based on the following principles:

* Respect for the individual

* Integrity and fairness in all our dealings

* Ethical behavior and hard work

* Winningsuccess breeds success

* Safe and healthy workplace

* Open communication without fear of reprisal

* Pride in our work, our company and our individual contributions

* Relationship equity with our vendors

* Prioritizing customer service. Customer service that creates competitive advantage.

* Policy and procedure that clearly define responsibilities providing functional guidelines to all employees

* Knowledge transfer through the sharing of information and communication

Caring about people is the cornerstone of this Johnson Doctrine, a doctrine that continues to create and develop a culture that embraces these core values, a culture that encourages and supports leadership development. We must manage our processes but Lead our People. Every one of our employees should not only be encouraged to develop their own leadership skills but as an organization we have an obligation to demonstrate effective leadership at every management level within the company.

This means we must be willing to invest in the leadership development and skill level of every employee that is in a management position at our company (including family members) and at the same time offer opportunities for advancement to all of our employees.

Although we expect our employees to demonstrate a passion for success and a commitment to getting the job done, we cannot expect any of our employees to Live to Work but recognize that employees Work to Live. This means that we must not only understand that every employee has family obligations but we must encourage employees to seek a balance in their lives and at a minimum give their own family life the priority necessary to maintain that balance.

Our ownership is committed to making our company a learning and evolving organization that believes in a family atmosphere and recognizes individual contributions toward success and demonstrates that recognition by providing job security and appropriate financial reward. This doctrine promotes the concept of exceptional performance by exceptional employees by not allowing our compassion and commitments to a family atmosphere gravitate toward acceptance of substandard performance at any level in the organization. Additionally, the Johnson family recognizes the importance of being a diligent corporate citizen that reaches out through various endeavors to support the needs of the communities that we do business in.

Signed by all family members