Culture becomes the foundation
The journey was a powerful one that continues today.
“With a great culture, anything is possible,” Jared says. “You could have the best strategy, the best product, the best location, but if your employees don’t believe in the product, don’t believe in working with you or don’t believe in anything that they’re doing, then it’s inevitably going to fail.”
Over time, as Jared built on his strength and worked on his weaknesses, he saw results for himself not only in the office but outside work as well.
Rhett finds the stronger culture makes it easier to attract new employees.
“Would you rather work somewhere that paid you 10 percent more than you’re making right now, and it’s a miserable place to work? No,” he says. “People want to work to wherever they have great leadership, people that are enthusiastic and a positive environment.”
It’s not about the physical environment, either.
“Culture can work out of a Quonset hut in North Dakota with a boom box,” Rhett says.
The work is going ongoing, but the effect is visible. When a long-term employee died from cancer, more than 100 Ricart employees were at the funeral, he says. Or, when a staff member faces a challenge, the company’s One of Our Own program might write a check that’s matched by the Ricart family.
“That is so important in a company, that you have a mechanism that you can take care of your employees before they have to ask to be taken care of,” Rhett says. “If you can do that, then you can create a culture that is bulletproof, no matter what happens.”
Hand-in-hand with employee engagement is training, which is often cut back when businesses look to control expenses, he says. That training might involve internal development, as well as looking outward, because people aren’t going to walk into your office and make you successful, Rhett says. You have to work on it; go out and find it by looking for best practices and sending your developing leaders out to learn.
“If you travel enough and see enough, it’s easy to come home and be innovative,” he says.
Rhett sees businesses hiring marketing companies to change their logo, brand or motto, looking for a magic wand to make things better.
“They miss the most important thing,” he says. “You’ve got to get your culture right, then you come out with your brand, then you come out with your motto. Because your people are the ones that are going to put that in the community.”
An innovative culture also only works if you don’t shoot the messenger, Rhett says. When someone tries something and fails, don’t ridicule or talk down to them.
Rick says the phrase he can’t stand is when someone stubbornly says, “That’s the way we’ve always done it.” To him, that actually means it’s an opportunity to innovate.
Another component to success is having an elite process that addresses all concerns — vendor, employee and customer satisfaction. Rhett, Rick and Jared like to use whiteboards for this.
“We like to lay things out schematically so they can see how they work, and that’s where you bring innovation because you have people involved,” Rhett says.
Build and diversify
Once the culture was stronger, the business had a better foundation to diversify from. Some growth came organically by expanding the fleet and commercial sales and service.
With business-to-business sales, the main driver is service. Because downtime can be crippling, Ricart developed technicians in house and offered critical benefits, Jared says.
“When they need something done and you can say, ‘Yes, please bring it here, we’ll have it back to you tomorrow,’ that is the gospel that they’re looking for,” he says.
In June, Ricart bought A.D. Farrow Co. Harley-Davidson, which has three locations. The company likes the strong brand and the fact that Harley is developing new products, including many that are electric.
