The communication needed to go both ways, but Smith and the managers in Central Ohio couldn’t wait for someone in Los Angeles to reach out to them. They had to hear and ask proactively.
Even today, there’s still inefficiency in this process, and it can be easy to forget as a management team, Smith says.
Goken has about 40 people in the Dublin office, which leaves 210 that may be two miles, 30 miles or 2,000 miles away.
“None of them are less or more important than any of the rest of us,” he says.
Not only does the management team need to intentionally communicate out, they also need to be intentional about what information they seek.
“We can’t wait until it’s too late and say, ‘Oh, shoot we should have known that,’” Smith says. “We’ve got to be intentional to make sure we’re creating that culture all over so that we’re all lifting each other up.”
Nurturing culture, development
Goken’s tagline is, “creating something different.” The company doesn’t just apply that to its customers. It also goes for its culture.
With rapid growth, Smith and his executive team have reinforced the mission, vision and values and made sure it’s spread out through the employees. That means sharing that culture, including everyone in the culture, and listening to the employees’ thoughts and ideas and adapting to them.
“We try to create something different in every way, and that really paid off with our clients. But it also paid off for our clients because of the way that we have hired people and enabled people and relied on people and taken care of people,” he says.
The entire company takes care of each other. The employees are all full time, which is unusual for the space that Goken competes in.
“Truly people are our most important assets. They are the ones that have created this growth,” Smith says.
At this point in its business cycle, however, Goken is reliant on a few transportation customers. It has positioned itself well in terms of those relationships and its approach to doing business with them, and Smith is confident the growth will continue.
Ultimately, the company would like to diversify into different technologies, industries and clients, but it’s difficult to find the bandwidth.
“When the business is right there, it’s hard to turn your back on it to go try to earn business somewhere else. Now, you still have to do both, but when it comes to prioritizing in the moment you’ve got to keep with the sure thing,” Smith says.
Goken’s diversification will continue to be one of its top priorities, not only for the long-term future of the company, but also for the long-term future of its employees.
“We need to create a business that allows us to take those talented people and allows them to spread their wings and become what they want and help take use to those other places,” he says.
