Today, Shelli Gardner, CEO and Founder of Stampin' Up, spoke to the Utah Chapter of the Association for Corporate Growth. Stampin' Up is a $300+ million revenue scrapbooking company based in Utah. (I know, I promised not to mention scrapbooking, but I can't help it.)
The following is a short excerpt from Shelli's official bio.
In 1988, with little college or business experience, Shelli invested her family's nest egg (intended to finance building a new home) to launch Stampin' Up! Building on the business models of Tupperware, Discovery Toys and Mary Kay, the sisters developed a direct sales approach that incorporated their own personal touches and methods.
The initial product line-made up of stamps produced by other companies-fit in a 64-page catalog. Shelli filled orders out of her living room. The business grew and relocated to Boulder City, Nevada. In 1992, the company began custom designing, manufacturing, and selling its own line of exclusive rubber stamp sets and accessories.
Later, the company moved to Kanab, Utah. Kanab can be found on a map dead center in the region marked "nowhere." You can't get there from here. Or from anywhere else for that matter. Two years ago, the company moved its headquarters and distribution center to the Salt Lake Valley--no where near nowhere. All the while, the Company has kept a production facility in Kanab.
For years, senior advisors and board members have suggested that Shelli move the production elsewhere, citing the obvious inefficiencies of operating the large production facility in Kanab. Stampin' Up is the largest employer in Kanab. She defended the decision to keep the facility there as justified by loyalty to a town she thinks of as her home town.
I think it is commendable for a CEO to make a decision based primarily on a value other than a financial principal. We may not all share the same values, but if we espouse a principle we should be willing to live by that principle.
(My apologies to the folks from the great town of Kanab, who certainly must know how to get there--even from here.)
Leaders making choices based on values ... who'd have thought it, in this crazy world!
Never been to Kanab. Sounds like a nice little place!
Posted by: Easton Ellsworth | May 13, 2006 10:04 AM | Permalink to Comment