Loyalty

“One for all, and all for one!” are the famous words of my childhood heroes, The Three Musketeers. To the younger me, their stories of heroism and friendship leapt off the pages written by Alexandre Dumas in 1844 and left a lasting impression. In a way, they are the essence of what we call loyalty. Loyalty is a hard thing to describe and even harder to win and to hold, but for those lucky enough to have found true loyalty, be it in your personal or professional life, it is one of the most comforting things you can experience.

The Moral Value of an Organization

In the business world, one can easily find and identify those of integrity and high moral standards. In my view of things, a company’s reputation is the most visible component of their underlying values and ethics. There is, however, more to the moral value of an organization than reputation alone. There is an organic component that can only be captured with prolonged exposure and by observing and participating in multiple events and circumstances as part of that team. I believe that these experiences formulate our opinions and where we choose to place our trust; not just based on their outcome, but how we felt going through the events at the time.

Our Merry Band

Continuing with the French theme, I call it the je ne sais quoi (a quality that can’t be described or named easily) of moral fiber. Which is, in short, what makes the Okuma Family so special. I have had the good fortune to spend quite a few years working not just at Hartwig Inc., but at Okuma itself. While there I had exposure to all of the OEM staff as well as every distributor in the Americas, Hartwig included. The bulk of my experience is on the customer service side with a few direct equipment sales under my belt as well. This unique professional journey, through the varied layers that make up the Okuma Support Network, has led to my own understanding of what this group’s loyalties look like at every level. I can happily report that throughout every tier of every company that makes up our merry band, friendships, conviction and a true sense of belonging join together in pursuit of what is best for our customer.

Longer, Stronger Relationships

At the time I joined Okuma I did not know it but every distributor relationship had already been established for decades. To date, I can’t think of any longer or stronger relationships between an OEM and their Distribution Network in our industry. Occasionally the lines even blur, as they have with myself, and staff moves from OEM to distributor or vice versa. Strengthening the bonds between the companies and spreading tribal knowledge and insights gained from each lesson learned up- and downstream along the distribution channel.

Shared Stories

No one has to move between companies in order to feel at home with their colleagues across the family of organizations. Distributor contacts that called in with questions or requests were not just a Hartwig MO employee, they were Jackie from St. Louis or Ron from Omaha, rather than a call from Hartwig NE. What made every call personal, made them a Jackie and a Ron, were not just familiarity with their names over time, it was the stories they shared in common with the people at Okuma. Stories of challenges, hardship, victories and sometimes even failures repeated ad nauseam across the nation. Allowing for one of the most stable, unique and ultimately strong machine tool distribution networks in the Americas to develop.

Loyalty

This network of bonds, that has been forged over decades amongst all of the people within it, works tirelessly to bring needed solutions to our customers. Bonds that I later came to recognize as loyalty. Loyalty to their profession, loyalty to their company, loyalty to their friends (near and far) and ultimately loyalty to their customers.

Willingness to Stay the Course

My path wound its way through Okuma and Hartwig Inc. but along the way I would have been hard pressed to point into the crowd at any distributor and find someone that had been at their respective company for less than 10 years or at least had the intention to reach that mark and beyond. It’s a weird thing to see in our current time, such willingness to stay the course, yet it is made possible by the atmosphere and experiences everyone helps to create every single day. So, as I look back on my own 10+ years in this industry I feel honored and proud to reflect on so many events and so many stories I’ve had the privilege to take part in with all of my loyal friends and family.

Unus pro omnibus, omnes pro uno (one for all, all for one).

Thanks to Mani Schafer (Hartwig) for providing this article.