By the time I started working at the company with my father and grandfather, our reputation for excellence and for treating everyone with integrity and respect had already been well established. These implicit core values were the foundation of our success at the time. I came of age in the generation in which business was harnessing the tremendous power of computing. We could see that embracing new technologies would become our competitive advantage given our smaller, more nimble organization. We began to emphasize the value of innovation for our business and our Statement of Core Values was updated to: “Driving Excellence and Innovation, while treating all with Integrity and Respect.”
The purchase of the downtown Modesto Reed Center in 1972 got Basic Resources out of trailers in a corner of George Reed’s Modesto yard. Back then, our first major investment in computing power took up half the footprint of the loft in the George Reed Modesto shop. The Burroughs computer was affectionately named
“Casper,” as it disappeared from working frequently. When we moved downtown, we upgraded machines, and the new Burroughs Univac computer took up a third of the 6th floor and needed 4 employees to generate our monthly financial reports along with a Burroughs technician who had his own on-site office. This huge machine was clearly a tool that only generated value through the quality of data fed to it (“garbage in = garbage out”) and through the people who programed it and formatted the reports to provide useful financials. The heart of this Data Processing Center was NOT the machine, it was our talented and innovative team. While computers and technology today have changed significantly, the essential need for our people to embrace new and evolving technologies has not.
Innovation is more than harnessing technology, it is creating value by doing something different. It is looking for new and better ways to do things. It is sometimes referred to as “Engineering Knack,” the natural ability or talent for understanding, solving, and approaching technical problems effectively.
Innovation is a combination of intuition, problem-solving skills, creativity, practical know-how, timing and a little magic to find efficient solutions to our everyday problems that did not exist before. It comes about when we foster an environment that empowers our people to find solutions with outside-the-box thinking. It is essential to our ability to thrive and grow.
As the Reed Family Companies start the annual process of strategic planning this year, we again start by focusing on ways to empower you to expand both personal and team capabilities. Little changes can add-up to big improvements. We want to encourage and recognize those small achievements as well as the big ones. To do that, we are introducing the R.E.E.D. Recognition portal. We hope this program will serve as a means of sharing good ideas as well appreciating all who make this a great place to work.
Innovation is not “things” like computers or equipment - it is unleashing the power of those on our team to find new and better ways of working each day.
Jeff Reed
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