introductions

["Don Ward" <donrward@hotmail.com>]

Dear EOprivers (Ugh)

I am Don Ward. In July 1998 I retired as HR Diector of a sewn products 
Company here in Louisville Ky. We became an ESOP  Company about 10 years 
earlier. We have memberships in the ESOP Assn.,  and NCEO. I am a board 
member of NCEO. I also was involved with Dan Bell and Kent. In fact, my 
safety director and I modeled our safety program after one of Dan's models 
which taught employees how to take a more active role in their own safety 
while at work. We are non union, so this was accomplished through 
supervisory-employee interactions. The bottem dropped out of safety costs to 
the point where I felt we were getting blood out of a turnip, to go further. 
The reward, which employees bought into was first, they did not get hurt and 
second these savings dropped through to the bottem line and into the ESOP 
contribution. I was not successful in convincing our management that we 
could impact scrap, rework etc. using the same approach. However we have 
done quite well in the value of our stock so an awful lot of nice people 
smile when their statements go out.

If I can make a contribution to COG, it will probably in teaching 
management, in countries having ESOP's, stock options or whatever how to 
maximize the contribution employee owners can make to the organization. I 
was a member of a human resource delegation which went to Russia and Ukraine 
several years ago. From that I learned that there is more than one 
management model for an organization, and that if I want to make a 
contribution, I caqnnot do it on American business terms.

Tim Mitchell, my son did snorkel off the Great Barrier Reef. Also, 
congratulations on your new position. It sounds like a real challenge.

Don Ward


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