The Welsh Wire: Jeff Disher of DISHER and Brad Hilleary of Webb Chemical

When Webb Chemical Service Corporation, a full-service chemical distributor with locations in Muskegon Heights, Michigan and Fort Wayne, Indiana, began facing the challenges of rapid growth and a changing culture, they called in the expertise of business consulting company DISHER in Zeeland, Michigan.

They tapped a firm that walks-the-walk. “We’ve been recognized for our culture through Fortune magazine,” says Jeff Disher, founder and president of DISHER. “It’s something that we focus hard on at DISHER, our culture and our mission statement, which is make a positive difference. It’s something that everybody on our team knows. They know how they live it every day with our clients, with our teammates and with our community.”

DISHER worked closely with Webb’s leaders to develop a culture vision that all their employees can buy into. “Every employee meeting, every departmental meeting, every picnic, every Christmas party, we bring up some piece of it, we talk about it,” says Brad Hilleary, owner/CEO of Webb. “And we came up with two acronyms: PMA for positive mental attitude, and GRACE for growth, responsibility, attitude, character and excellence. We tell every employee in the organization, this is how we operate. And you have the authority of the owner of the company to challenge anyone else in the company if they’re not doing those two things.”

Culture is a crucial part of talent attraction, Hilleary says. “Millennials, if you ask them, or allow them to ask a question in the interview, they will say, what’s your culture? It’s very, very, very important to them. And so we do culture on purpose now and we talk about it and we invite others to add it. Our culture is ever evolving because we want the creativity and the new ideas from the new folks to be part of the core of who we are.”

Listen to Sheri’s entire interview with Jeff Disher and Brad Hilleary

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