Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1505694
AUGUST 2023 I PCB007 MAGAZINE 15 Being employee owned has a lot to do with all of our decisions. I feel a tremendous responsi- bility as the CEO to make sure that we're tak- ing care of our 6,300 employees and their fam- ilies every day. So, when making the decision to spend $100 million, I understand that it's certainly a lot of money for us. We didn't ask the government for any subsidies—not fed- eral, state, or local. To do this, we reinvested our profit back into the printed circuit board factory, and our expectation is that, because we're making these sound decisions for our employee owners, we will see long-term ben- efits. One of the benefits of an ESOP is that we report to the employee owners, not external shareholders who are most interested in short- term gains. It really gives everybody a sense of ownership. One of the best ways that we share our strat- egy with our employee owners is by hosting a company-wide catered business lunch every Friday. We get everybody together and review how the business is doing. We've talked about the printed circuit board factory, its cost, and the challenges throughout the project. We talk about sales, if there's a problem with a cus- tomer or product, and we bring all this stuff forward. We're very transparent and open with the employees about how the company is doing and that has been our strategy since day one. I don't think we'll ever get rid of it. Matties: What advice would you give to other businesses that are developing a strategy? Make sure that everybody in the organi- zation is aligned on what your mission is. What's your vision? Make sure everybody has bought into it, and then you can start pick- ing out particular activities that you want to do. My advice is to do something innovative