Given the chance, a mission of goodwill has taken the hearts of thousands of people in our Company, and we are all better for it.
Ken Butler, COO, Aaron's Inc.

Photo/RTOonline.com

Ken Butler, COO of Aaron Rents, Inc.

Aaron's Inc. has held an annual meeting for its store managers, franchisees, senior staff and key suppliers for decades. Each year, our people gather to give out performance awards to top Company-operated and franchised stores. We also conduct sessions on operational issues related to running a top store in our system. The meeting is popular and big. It is held in a nice city at a first class hotel. The attendees all have the common bond of working for the same company, and they look forward to seeing their old friends and meeting new ones each year. We have both entertaining and informative programs. It all makes sense and always has from a business point of view.

Until last year, we set aside one afternoon for all our participants to relax and get to know each other. It was free time. In some cases, it was a chance to see the attractions of a city. For others, they would sit around the hotel, often in the bar, and tell tales. We were self-absorbed in the business of doing our business, focused on our success and on our own people.

Last year we decided to try something new. Our managers asked if they could give their free time up to do something good for the community. We thought about our group that had grown now to over 2,200 people and how many hours of service they could contribute to good causes by working together in one community. It was easy math. Each person spending nearly three hours working one day would total 5,600 hours of good deeds. We decided to try it.

Last year's meeting was in Washington, D.C.. Our day of service was amazing and inspiring. We divided into teams and attached different causes. One group went to Bethesda Naval Hospital, badly in need of new furnishings for its family and staff lounge areas. Our people cleaned the rooms, brought in new furniture, put in big screen TVs, computers and turned the dreary places into modern areas with all new furniture and equipment. We felt the pride of our people for what they had accomplished. At Walter Reed Hospital, we hosted a giant barbecue for over 2,000 patients, staff and their families. At a local inner city school, we bought new shoes for the youngsters and gave them another pair to send to a youngster in a third world country. We put on a road race for the Wounded Warriors Project, raising money for that charity that supports wounded soldiers returning from war. Another group went to the National Mall to clean, plant trees and flowers. Our people quickly decided they had found a new tradition for our annual meetings. Good people doing good deeds and feeling good about it quickly became a very powerful experience.

Last month we had our meeting in Dallas. We divided into teams again, went to the Dallas Food Bank, to another school for the shoe program, we refurbished and furnished the waiting areas of the Dallas Veterans Hospital, and another group build stables and did landscaping at a local horse park that works with autistic children. And, we hosted another Wounded Warriors run. Since we can't close our stores and operations for a week to have our meetings, our auditors have always met in another city the following week. This year they went to Phoenix. They also jumped on the bandwagon and assembled bicycles for underprivileged youngsters. Given the chance, a mission of goodwill has taken the hearts of thousands of people in our Company, and we are all better for it.

I am not suggesting what you should do in your company. But I wanted to tell you about our experience. If you measure the good of thousands of hours spent working together and the helping of other people against sitting around and having free time, I would have never guessed that the hard work would be so unanimously supported. We can't turn back. It is now part of our culture.

And, by the way, good works are rewarded in many ways. Aaron's recently received the Armed Forces Foundation Award as the corporate citizen of the year for what we did in Washington in our first year.

That makes a boss feel very good about his company and his people.

Ken Butler
COO of Aaron's, Inc.

send comments to admin@rtoonline.com