I heard it described as a family. When I first heard it, I thought it was kind of cheesy…
I’ve been with Clearfield for a couple of years now, but that was my first thought when I was told of the Clearfield Culture. As an outsider, I could see that these men and women seemed to get along and have a lot of fun at tradeshows, but I didn’t really see the culture behind it.
After one of the most interesting orientations (or initiations), I was fully introduced to this group of fun loving, sometimes quirky, but very open and helpful group. This company is completely different from other companies I’ve worked with. I couldn’t put my finger on it until I was at one of my own family get-togethers — Clearfield is just like my family.
We are not all related, but we do have the quiet ones, the loud ones (me included), the thinkers, the practical ones, the ones that never miss a birthday, the cookie makers and even the weird uncle (I’ll let you guess). But what’s really fun is that we can mess with each other all we want, but when it comes to getting down to business, you won’t find another group of people in this country that will pull together and solve a customer’s problem like us.
We had a brainstorming session to solve a problem that a customer was trying to overcome. They had banged their heads against the wall long enough, and finally asked one of our “Smart Guys” if he could help. He brought it “home” while we were having a national meeting of the minds. We had one of those family meetings where everybody contributed something from either their perspective or practical experience. It was one of those truly amazing moments to see the collective wheels turning and looking for a common solution.
In the end, we came up with a solution that worked for the customer, that we could manufacture in an economical way, and most importantly, that solved the problem. So by using the full resources of the Clearfield family, our customer was able to concentrate on what was important to them…their customers.
The moral of this family saga is that by using the strengths that each member of the Clearfield family brings to the table, we were able to solve a seemingly un-solvable problem for our customer AND make a product set better for it. It was a win/win for everybody.
You have a problem that’s been keeping you up at nights? Just give the Clearfield family a call!
By Scot Bohaychyk