The Leadership Lowdown waited for many months to get Phil Sponsler as our guest...and the wait was SO WORTH IT!  The conversation is full of great pearls of wisdom from a highly successful career!  
Phil's message has a lot to offer leaders, hear what he shares with Vic!

Phil Sponsler wonders aloud that, if companies are formed to operate in perpetuity, why are so many reluctant to make the effort to retain employees for the long run?

“We have very highly skilled employees, and we make a lot of investments in our workforce,” said Sponsler, president of Jackson-based Orbitform LLC. “The result is we have a culture where the older folks who have worked here a long time pass along our values to newer workers.

“In the end, culture trumps strategy all day long. And you can’t buy reputation. We hired about a dozen people this past year, and we asked them what they had heard about our company. They said they heard Orbitform was a great place to work. That’s what we are after.”

Building the trust of employees so they stay on for years takes much more than just bringing in a cake for a person’s birthday, he said. It involves every aspect of the business, ranging from how floor space will be utilized to encouraging participation in wellness programs.

Sponsler is a strong proponent of continuous improvement and a voracious reader of business theory.  This is what the Leadership Lowdown is all about!  Showcasing Michigan's best!  Listen in on this edition and hear something special!