Posted On August 8, 2016

At Flat World Holdings (which includes Flat World Supply Chain, Flat World Hospitality, RAM International, RAM Custom Crating, and Prologue Technology) we strive to build a culture of excellence. And we wouldn’t be where we are today—one month away from our 10th anniversary celebration—without our focus on building that culture.

Without our culture of excellence, we wouldn’t have become one of the fastest-growing companies in the region and in the logistics and supply chain sector.

Without our culture of excellence, we wouldn’t have been able to grow our family to include RAM International and RAM Custom Crating.

Without our culture of excellence, we would not be able to provide entrepreneurs, manufacturers, and job creators with the logistics and supply chain solutions they need to remain competitive.

And without our excellent people, we would not be able to create our excellent culture.

See, it’s not just what our employees “do” that has made our culture what it is. It’s who those employees “are,” as people, that has made our company unique, and frankly, special.

That’s not just us bragging.This past spring, Flat World Holdings employees led a drive to raise enough money to send Natalie, an eight-year-old girl with congenital heart defects, to Disney World through the local chapter of the Make-A-Wish Foundation. Our employees—not management—were the driving force behind that effort, and they were able to raise enough money to send Natalie and another child to Disney World. In fact, our team is in the midst of initiating another significant charitable effort assisting an adoption program in the Chicagoland area.

Sometimes the difference between what life is like inside this company full of amazing people, and how logistics and supply chain management can be perceived by others, is striking.

Anyone who works in the logistics and supply chain profession knows that the outside world can view the subject as a little…well, a little dry. When you tell someone from outside the industry that you help others manage their supply chain, you almost always see three things happen immediately:

1. A slight glazing of the eyes.

2. A slight nodding of the head.

3. A gentle redirecting of the conversation.

But what the person with the glazed eyes and nodding head doesn’t know is what it is actually like inside the walls at the Flat World family of companies, where there is a group of excellent people who care about each other, their customers, the work they do, and the communities they live in.

Yes, we know we are bragging. But we really do have excellent people.

And excellent people attract other excellent people. When that happens, before you know it, you have an excellent culture—one that allows people within the culture to do what they do best, and serve our customers with the same level of commitment our employees show each other.

Looking back over the last ten years, there are things we would do differently. When we look back again ten years from now, there are things we haven’t even done yet that we will wish we would have done differently. That’s just the nature of trying to build and grow something that is new and different.

But we are proud of what we’ve accomplished, and the thing that we are proudest of is the group of amazing people who have created a culture of excellence that has made us the company we are today.