Just before midnight, this past Wednesday I was working on my computer (as has become a pattern for me in these economically challenging times) when I got an email from my Director of Purchasing, Darren Stott, with an idea for a special holiday season offer for our customers.

The idea flowed from a conversation that our management team had had earlier in the day about how we could provide a special reward for all our terrific customers who had supported us throughout the year.  Our Calgary general manager, Kevin Burbank, shared with the group a neat idea from a coffee company where you bring in a coupon and it entitles the person behind you in line to a free coffee.   We bounced a couple of ideas around but couldn’t come up with anything exciting during the meeting.

But as I read Darren’s email, I could see that his mind had kept churning away on this idea until he had worked out something really exciting that would provide a big benefit to our customers and to us.  By the way, this is a recurring pattern for Darren who has exhibited many similar bursts of creativity and inspiration over the years.

Darren with son James

In fact, it was Darren’s creativity that caused me to hire him in the first place over six years ago.   A recent immigrant from the United Kingdom, he decided that he would only work for a company that he felt was going to make a positive difference in the world.  He had done some homework on spud! and came to our first meeting with a full Powerpoint presentation of how he could help us grow our business and deepen our social impact.  I was so impressed with his business skills and ideas that I hired him even though we didn’t have any open positions.

Continue reading Holiday season offer the result of inspiration and great teamwork