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Taking Stock in Employees
November 05, 2007
Top performers of Viasys Healthcare trade smiles and thanks at the New York Stock Exchange.
By Anne Marie D. Lee
It's 6:30 p.m. in the financial district of New York City. Well after the closing bell has been rung and traders have left for the day, Harith Wickrema, founder and president of the event planning company Harith Productions Ltd., of Willow Grove, Pa., walks briskly through the hallowed corridors of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) building and a bustling scene of waitstaff and caterers, entertainers and an A/V team setting up microphones and cameras. Attending to last-minute details, Harith hovers over preparations like a theater director close to showtime. And close to showtime it is. In just 30 minutes, the evening's guests of honor, the 22 winners of Viasys Healthcare Inc.'s sixth and final Chairman's Club, will be streaming through the red-carpeted entrance and high security, proud spouses in tow.
Entering the trading floor at the NYSE is a visual thrill that Viasys employees describe as a surreal and an awe-inspiring experience. High ceilings and elongated elliptical windows house a matrix of circular trading posts overlaid with computer screens and keyboards, the soon-to-be remnants of a fading bricks and mortar era. For this special after-hours occasion, cloth-covered drink stations have been set up with chocolate-rimmed martini glasses. Guests explore and mingle while sipping cocktails and snacking on hors d'oeuvres. Also floating about are staff members of the NYSE, on hand to answer any questions from attendees about the historic building.
Standing on the NYSE balcony, an MC introduces Randy Thurman, chairman, president and chief executive officer of Viasys, a global research-based medical technology maker. Thurman initiated the Chairman's Club soon after he joined the company in 2001, at which time Viasys went public at the NYSE. Six years and a $1.5 billion acquisition later, the company now bears the name of Cardinal Health, and is based in Dublin, Ohio. The sixth annual Chairman's Club event was therefore the last for the no-longer-existing company and its chair. That it should end at the same location it began, at the NYSE, seems fitting; nonetheless Thurman makes a point of dedicating the entire evening to the award winners and their accomplishments, not his own.
In an interview after the event, Thurman describes the Chairman's Club as a means of recognizing the 'best of the best,' adding, "It's a recognition program where we identify the people who best represent the values of Viasys Healthcare. Not only do we recognize them, but we raise the visibility of their accomplishments to the other people in the company, in hopes of other people striving for the same level of performance."
The Chairman's Club program was open to employees at all levels of the company, and gave recognition not just to meeting performance goals but to overall contribution as well. To qualify, employees had to meet certain criteria in their division, such as salesman of the year in the case of salespeople, or in the case of marketing, the completion of a special project. Winners received 3,000 shares of company stock and a crystal eagle. In addition to that, both the winner and a family member were taken on a trip with the entire club to an exciting destination—this year, New York. Also present on trips were division presidents and top management. Those elected into the Chairman's Club four times or more received Master status, which entitled them to repeated membership without qualification.
Quality means everything when it comes to reward programs, and from first-hand observation it is accurate to say that the NYSE event put together by Harith Productions was nothing short of magnificent. Employees were thrilled. "Nothing comes close to the Chairman's Club," says Doug Glick, a senior sales representative based in California's Bay Area, and three-time Chairman's Club winner. "Randy Thurman, who was the president of the company, is first-class and everything the Chairman's Club did was first-class. Plus the fact that you got 3,000 shares of stock. I've never been in an awards program where they gave you anything of that value. That to me was very impressive."
For Glick, the highlight of the New York City event was dinner in NYSE's boardroom, the famed meeting space of history's most powerful financial figures. Club members and their guests were seated at a dazzling table setting, at which time a choreographed line of waiters carried out wine, while classical music played in the background. After a brief speech and toast by Thurman, the waiters proceeded to bring out the first part of a six-course meal. The service was as much a part of the production as were three Broadway singers who made special appearances. Says Glick, "Everything was excellent: the entertainment, the food, it was incredible."
In addition to the extravagant events tied to the Chairman's Club, Glick says he was very pleased to be part of a recognition program open to all employees. "I think it makes it even better, because it's not all about sales, no company is. To see engineers, service representatives—that was really nice." As an incentive, the Chairman's Club may not have driven Glick in his day-to-day performance, but he says, "As I get closer to the end of the year when I knew that I'd definitely be in the mix for this, it did drive me, I was incentivized by it."
Five-time Chairman's Club award winner Marie Wolfsen, an Indiana-based senior sales rep now in her 11th year at the company, saw the Chairman's Club as an opportunity to exchange ideas with top management and learn what was going on in other divisions and at other levels of the company. In addition to that, she says it served as a meaningful award, not just for employees, but their family members as well. "To have our families with us as part of the reward, not just for us, but to acknowledge their participation—which Randy always acknowledged—was very special. You can't have a successful business, a successful territory, without an equally contributive spouse or other behind you." Wolfsen attributes her drive to succeed to her father's edict to either do your best or not do it at all. That said, she did find inspiration in the Chairman's Club program. "Once you experience it, you never wanted to set the marker lower than what it took to get you there." Asked if she had ever visited New York City before, Wolfsen emphatically replies, "Not like this, not like this."
As for the impact of the Chairman's Club on the Viasys company as a whole, in the six years of Thurman's tenure, Viasys achieved significant growth and revenue and was recognized five times with the American Association for Respiratory Care (AARC) Zenith Award for product quality, accessibility, helpfulness of sales personnel, responsiveness, service record and truth in advertising. And the importance of the chairman and the club he created? When handed her crystal eagle, Wolfsen, who has been singing since childhood, ended her thank-you speech with a heartfelt rendition of "The Impossible Dream," the heroic ballad from Man of La Mancha, which Wolfsen equates to the type of leadership Thurman provided.
For Wolfsen, the recognition offered by the Chairman's Club was a celebration of achievement, the simple fact, she says, that "Someone knew, that someone watched, that someone got it, what it took to get there." For Glick, defining the impact of the Chairman's Club is also simple. "I would say Viasys was a great company to work for, a wonderful company to work for."
Profile: Viasys Healthcare
Industry: Health care
Objective: To recognize top performers in all divisions of the company for their overall contributions as well as performance.
Solution: Each winner and a guest is treated to a first-class travel experience with the Chairman's Club to New York and the NYSE. In addition to that, winners receive a crystal eagle award and 3,000 shares of company stock.
Results: In the six years that the Chairman's Club program took place, Viasys Healthcare showed consistent revenue growth and received five Zenith awards from the American Association for Respiratory Care (AARC) for product quality and helpfulness of sales personnel, among other achievements. It also established itself as the market leader in several divisions product.
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