Posted On July 13, 2018
by Kirk Ferrell and Jeff Rothermich
Co-founders and Managing Partners
Flat World Holdings
Twelve years ago, the two of us fulfilled a dream by becoming entrepreneurs when we started what would become the Flat World Holdings family of companies. During the first few months of our existence, we operated out of the St. Louis Bread Company in the morning, and Fox & Hound in the evening. Coffee and beer, get it? Early on, we weren’t exactly sure what kind of company that we’d become, but we did have a few ideals that we knew were important:
- Companies can be successful “and” provide a work environment where employees enjoy coming to work.
- Say YES to customers much more often than NO.
- Provide our customers with world-class customer service.
- Stay ahead of our competitors from a technology perspective.
- Value employee ideas.
- Serve our community.
Taken together, we believed adhering to these ideals would create the foundation for a company focused on excellence. Over the years that has proven true—but we can’t take all the credit. In fact, we can’t even take most of the credit.
It isn’t us.
It’s our team.
The people that make up the Flat World Holdings team consistently raise money for community-based organizations like the Make-A-Wish Foundation, Grant Me Hope, and the Mighty Oakes Heart Foundation. Their dedication to our customers, each other, and their community is the reason why Flat World Holdings recently won the Arcus Award for Excellence in Logistics along with being recognized by The St. Louis Post-Dispatch as a Top Workplace.
And that’s just in the last six months.
We’re proud of what we’ve achieved, and we’re proud of it in large part, because a strong foundation for us means better performing supply chains for our customers. We can serve our customers with excellence because our employees serve each other and their communities with excellence.
We’ve spent our whole careers in the transportation, logistics, and supply chain sector. We know there is little room for error, and in the end, being competitive and having a profitable bottom line is incredibly important. If you aren’t profitable, you don’t stay in business, and if you don’t stay in business you can’t treat your employees well—because you’ll have no employees. We understand that. We’ve lived that.
We’ve also learned that the only way to stay competitive is by building a team that believes in what your company stands for and is committed to your mission and vision. At Flat World Holdings we’ve built that, and what we stand for is a culture of excellence with unparalleled customer service at its core. That’s why we were recognized as a Top Workplace by the Post-Dispatch.
Being named a Top Workplace is the best award we could ever win, because it means that our employees are proud to be a part of the Flat World team, and that was at the center of what we wanted to create at the very beginning.
The second-best award we could ever win is your business.
Those two awards are highly related. You can only deliver the type of excellence-based customer service that attracts and retains customers if your employees enjoy coming to work.
If your business isn’t already a Flat World client we hope you’ll join us. The teams at Flat World Supply Chain, Flat World Hospitality Management, Ram International, Ram Custom Crating, and Prologue Technology can show you exactly what we mean by a culture of excellence with unparalleled customer service at its core.
If you are already part of the Flat World family, as a customer, employee, vendor, or friend; thank you for helping make us who we are. We couldn’t do it without you.
