2017 TOP BUSINESSES of the year
J. Pat Beaird Industry of the Year Awards
One company will rise above the rest this year to receive the coveted Industry of the Year Award when the Greater Shreveport Chamber of Commerce, J. Pat Beaird Memorial Fund and The Forum present the J. Pat Beaird Industry & Top Businesses of the Year Awards Luncheon at 11:30 a.m. Sept. 28 at Sam’s Town Casino.
Griggs Enterprises Inc./McDonald's of Shreveport, owned by Roy Griggs, will be honored with that title at the event held in memory of industrialist and philanthropist J. Pat Beaird Sr.
"Mr. Griggs has been a significant player in the philanthropic life of the community," said Dr. Tim Magner, president of the Greater Shreveport Chamber of Commerce. “He’s head of the Boy Scouts, president of the Norwela Council and a whole range of things – playing a leadership role as a corporate model citizen in the community in addition to making an economic impact on a regular basis.”
The Industry of the Year winner is chosen from a Senior Council comprised of past board chairpersons of the Greater Shreveport Chamber of Commerce.
"These are people who have a keen understanding of our organization's goals and mission and the ability to link those two," Magner said. “That’s a particularly effective group to be evaluating that award.”
Criteria include promoting real dollar expansion, community expansion and creation of new jobs.
“It’s about looking at the organization over time,” Magner said. “The criteria doesn’t change year to year.”
In business for himself since 1988 and in the Shreveport area since 1997, Griggs now employs more than 850 people with an annual revenue of $32 million and a payroll of approximately $7.4 million.
The Chamber and The Forum will also recognize six small businesses at the event, five of which are in the health-care industry and one in fine arts. They are the Strand Theatre, Magee Resource Group, LLC, Lang Orthodontics, Always Best Care, Lauve’s Pediatric Day Health Care and Preferred Care at Home of Northwest.
These businesses were nominated under specific guidelines as defined by the Small Business Administration. They must be a service business and/or retailer with annual revenues of $3.5 million or less, a manufacturer with fewer than 500 employees or a wholesaler employing fewer than 100 workers.
A chamber committee then scored the businesses on growth, innovation, service to the community and job creation, and winners were chosen from those scores.
Keynote speaker for the event is Peter Docker, an “igniter” for Simon Sinek’s Start With Why team and a regular contributer to the Start With Why blog and podcast series.
Docker likes to help individuals and organizations harness the power of “Why.”
The result is extraordinary cultures and sustainable high performance. He illustrates his insights by drawing on examples from his previous flying, military and industry career to explain principles that can be applied in any business.
A leadership consultant and executive coach, Docker’s commercial experience extends across Europe, the Middle East and Africa, North America, Latin America, India and the Far East. He has engaged at senior levels with several of the world’s largest companies, developing an understanding of many industries including oil and gas, construction, mining, pharmaceuticals, health care, banking and aviation.
Docker will lead attendees through a discussion on Sinek’s book “Leaders Eat Last” and why leadership is not an event but a process that is developed from simple everyday actions.
"It's a book that talks about how you can transform organizations through thoughtful leadership," Magner said. “It’s a neat opportunity to not only celebrate businesses and people who are examples of this kind of leadership but give everybody a chance to reflect on their own leadership styles and their own business performance.”
He said he hopes it will encourage attendees to "give it a go" for another year.
"Imagine a world where almost everyone wakes up inspired to go to work, feels trusted and valued during the day and then returns home feeling fulfilled,” Docker said. “This is not a crazy, idealized notion. Today, in many successful organizations, great leaders are creating environments in which people naturally work together to do remarkable things.”
He explains that many great leaders sacrifice their own comfort – even their own survival – for the good of those in their care.
“This principle has been true since the earliest tribes of hunters and gatherers. It’s not a management theory; it’s biology,” he said. “When we create an environment where people feel like they belong and operate in a ‘Circle of Safety,’ the result is trust and collaboration – allowing people to spend their time and energy working together toward a higher cause that inspires them, rather than spending their time and energy protecting themselves from each other.”
The annual industry award and event are named and held in honor of industrialist J. Pat Beaird Sr., whose lifetime of community service and tireless promotion of the greater Shreveport area helped make Northwest Louisiana a better place to live and work. Last year the entire banking industry was honored in an unprecedented move by the Chamber.
Tickets for the J. Pat Beaird Industry & Top Businesses of the Year Awards Luncheon are $40. After Sept. 17, they will be $50. Table and event sponsorships are available. Register at 677-2500 or online at www. shreveportchamber.org.
Roy
Griggs doesn’t consider his multi-million dollar business a success –
in his words, it’s “nothing but God’s grace and mercy and a lot of hard
work!” The Greater Shreveport Chamber of Commerce, however, considers
Griggs Enterprises, Inc./McDonald's certainly worthy of bestowing the
Industry of the Year Award during the J. Pat Beaird Industry & Top
Businesses of the Year Awards Luncheon at 11:30 a.m. Sept. 28 at Sam’s
Town Casino.
"I am simply proud and honored to be the recipient of this year's J. Pat Beaird Memorial Industry of the Year Award,” Griggs said. “I never imagined Griggs Enterprise Inc./McDonald's would hold this prestigious honor … WOW!” Industry of the Year winner is chosen from a Senior Council comprised of past board chairpersons of the Greater Shreveport Chamber of Commerce.
Criteria include promoting real dollar expansion, community expansion and creation of new jobs.
In addition, Griggs, who relocated to the Shreveport area from Alabama in 1997, prides himself on giving back to his community by recognizing A and B honor roll students, reading and acceleration of reading, teacher appreciation, and various levels of donations and sponsorships, which cover a vast majority of events.
"Most of all, we basically set the foundation for a lot of individuals, be it youth, young adults and adults with gainful employment opportunities, all of this throughout Caddo, Bossier and East Texas,” he said. “We consider our communities a great way to build relationships and help our citizens; this is one of our ways of giving back to society.”
Griggs enjoys working with young people, and his advice for them is always to give it your best.
"It's the simple things in life that are overlooked. You never know who’s watching you,” he pointed out. “Take pride in any job you do … it may be picking up paper on the parking lot, or sweeping the floor … doing a job very well.”
Griggs' first job was working at a “mom and pop” restaurant where his customer service skills, “my attitude with a smile were noticed by a McDonald’s franchisee who offered me a position with McDonald’s. You never know who’s watching you.”
Letter From Chamber President Don Olsen Since its inception over 100 years ago, the mission of the Greater Shreveport Chamber of Commerce has been to promote economic prosperity, serve as a business advocate and celebrate the achievements of our region. Each of our programs, projects and events is designed to fulfill of one of those three mission components.
As part of our efforts to celebrate the achievements of our region, each year in September at the J. Pat Beaird Industry and Top Businesses of the Year Awards Luncheon, we take time to honor an outstanding corporate entity and celebrate the impact of its industry on Northwest Louisiana with the presentation of the J. Pat Beaird Memorial Industry of the Year Award.
The award and event are named and held in honor of industrialist J. Pat Beaird Sr., whose lifetime of community service and tireless promotion of the greater Shreveport area helped make Northwest Louisiana a better place to live and work. We are grateful for the Beaird family’s continued generous support of the luncheon and award.
The annual luncheon serves as our opportunity to recognize the members of our business community who have been not only organizationally successful, but who have been engaged civically and philanthropically in our community. We honor a single large business or industry that has made this impact through real dollar expansion, community involvement and the creation of new jobs. This year we are pleased to honor Griggs Enterprises Inc. as the Industry of the Year for their outstanding commitment to our local economy and community life.
In addition to the Industry of the Year, we also recognize a number of business that, while smaller in size, also are involved in the kind of economic expansion, job creation and civic engagement that represents the economic foundation of Shreveport-Bossier. This year we are pleased to recognize these six companies for their achievements: Always Best Care, Lang Orthodontics, Lauve's Pediatric Day Health Care, Magee Resource Group, LLC, Preferred Care at Home of Northwest Louisiana and The Strand Theatre.
Our luncheon also allows us to come together as a business community to reflect on our role as community leaders. To lead that reflection this year, we are pleased to present Peter Docker as our luncheon speaker. Peter is a former RAF group captain with significant leadership development experience and a partner with Simon Sinek in the Start With Why consultancy group. Peter’s talk will focus on Simon Sinek’s groundbreaking book, "Leaders Eat Last" about creating an environment where people are inspired to cooperate, resulting in remarkable outcomes.
Cooperation is the hallmark of our efforts at the chamber. Our 1,780 members individually offer unique products and services to our community, and by coming together collectively they enable the chamber to engage directly with our community partners, civic organizations and legislators to improve the economic capacity and quality of life in our community.
On behalf of the board and members of the chamber, we offer hearty congratulations to each of this year’s honorees as we look forward to celebrating them on Sept. 28.
Magee Resource Group, founded in 1991, will take home one of six Top Businesses of the Year awards from the J. Pat Beaird Industry & Top Businesses of the Year Awards Luncheon, having established itself as one of the top single-office search firms in the world.
"We're extremely excited and honored," said Terry Petzoid, managing partner of MRG's IT Division.
MRG is home to award-winning professional recruiters dedicated to helping their clients grow by introducing them to the right people.
"We've worked predominantly outside of Louisiana for the last 27 years until just the last couple of years," Petzoid said.
To best serve their clients, MRG has built narrow-focus health-care leadership recruiting teams to specialize in specific service
lines: cardiovascular and oncology. This allows team members to develop relationships with key leadership professionals in those programs, and to understand the intricacies necessary to locate, qualify and present only those few professionals who will best suit the position at hand.
"Those specialties have been very successful for us," Petzoid said. "As you subspecialize in those kinds of practices, you get to know everyone, and it allows us to place key leaders across the nation in both permanent roles and interim roles."
MRG’s other division is technology, which has been in place since 1999.
"We specialized in an area called SAP (systems, applications, products), which is a major software platform that Fortune 500 companies globally roll out across the U.S.,” he said.
"A couple of years ago, we started to have more of a presence in Shreveport and Bossier City with some of these companies that need technology experts or technology companies that needed to expand their work force," he said. "We are able to offer the entire recruitment process.”
Top Businesses of the Year awards are nominated, and winners must have strong core values and show how they contribute to the community. MRG does so in the following ways:
• To honor God in all we do. • To help in the development of our employees – our most important assets.
• To serve our customers with a spirit of excellence.
• To invest in our community with a spirit of charity.
• To ensure MRG remains a profitable business.
Teamwork and family are driving forces behind Lang Orthodontics and contribute to why they are one of the Top Businesses of the Year.
"This award means a lot to our office because it represents our office," said Dr. Morgan Lang. "We strive to provide an amazing customer experience with each patient that comes through our door. This award is not about what someone has done, but rather about what we can get done when we work collectively."
The award will have a special place in the office at 814 Pierremont in Shreveport, "as we are one big family, and we wouldn't be receiving it without the help of our work-family."
Being recognized among their colleagues in the small business industry is an honor Dr. Lang does not take lightly, and the other offices that share the honor remain a source of inspiration.
By remaining involved in the community and partnering with their neighbors, their office has an impact on the community they serve as it continues to grow.
Lang Orthodontics actively gives back through a number of community initia tives.
“One of the team's favorite projects is Cards for the Holidays,” Dr. Lang said. “Holiday cards are colored by local children and delivered to more than 3,000 heroes in the military, recipients of Meals on Wheels, hospital patients, nursing homes and the Providence House during the Christmas and Easter holidays.
Our goal is for those who receive a card to know how special and loved they are, especially since they are unable to be home for the holidays.”
Dr. Lang and her team love to support local organizations, like Girls on the Run, the Providence House, the YMCA and the community's schools.
Also, they find ways to give to national movements including The American Heart Association, Special Olympics, Red Nose Day and the Susan G. Komen organization. Lang Orthodontics gives back because they enjoy supporting their community and it helps connect them with their neighbors.
By doing their part, Lang Orthodontics is ensuring the community they live in today is just as rich in culture and opportunities as it will be for their children and the generation that follows.
From the moment Preferred Care at Home’s doors opened in Shreveport, owners Scott Green and Robert Smith were determined to provide the highest quality senior home care to their community.That is only one reason they were nominated and will receive one of the Top Businesses of the Year honors at the J. Pat Beaird Industry & Top Businesses of the Year Awards Luncheon.
“At Preferred Care at Home, we consider it an honor to provide families with peace of mind that their loved ones are safe and well attended during stressful and difficult times,” Smith said. “For us, being named as a recipient of The Forum Business of the Year Award is a tribute to both our extraordinary staff and our professional caregivers who have made Preferred Care at Home the area’s premier licensed home care company.”
This passion for their community and dedication to excellence was also recognized at Preferred Care at Home’s 2014 Annual Convention, where Green and Smith have earned numerous awards.
“We wanted to make a difference for the senior population of Northwest Louisiana, and we knew we could accomplish this by opening a home care company,” Green said. “It’s not only about providing quality senior care, it’s about safeguarding the dignity and independence of every client whom we serve.”
Green and Smith have both earned the professional designation of Certified Senior Advisor due to their practical and comprehensive understanding of health, social and financial issues that are important to many older adults, including ethical issues specific to aging.
“We understand the stress and feeling of helplessness of someone suddenly thrust into a new world of caregiving for a family member or loved one,” Green said. “In our Family Learning Center on our website, we provide free access to hours of family-caregiver education modules with tips on everything from senior-friendly activities to Alzheimer’s care. This information is available not only to our clients but to anyone in our community.”
Preferred Care at Home supports community groups which focus on the aging population through sponsorships of Caddo Council on Aging’s “Meals on Wheels” program, Alzheimer’s Association’s “Walk to End Alzheimer’s,” and the Alzheimer’s Agency of Shreveport/Bossier’s “Resource Directory.”
Since 1996, Always Best Care has helped thousands of families with non-medical in-home care and assisted living referral services, making it one of six businesses to receive Top Businesses of the Year awards at the J. Pat Beaird Industry & Top Businesses of the Year Awards Luncheon.
"I am honored to receive this recognition for Always Best Care Senior Services," owner Keith Carter said. "We work tirelessly every day to provide excellent service to our patients and their families.”
Since purchasing this business in 2014, Carter's focus has been to build the best team possible to fulfill his mission of providing excellent care to seniors and others who benefit from their services.
Their passion for helping people maintain a safe, independent and dignified lifestyle represents the foundation of Always Best Care. Every client receives extraordinary care in an inspiring environment with caring and compassionate people.
"I take the responsibility very seriously to offer care and services to allow seniors to age gracefully at home as long as possible,” he said. “My team accepts the same responsibility to exceed expectations … always!” Always Best Care resources include an extensive library to help the family make better-informed decisions on senior care and more. Their vision is to work as a united team providing the best senior care with the broadest range of services and the most loving and consistent care anywhere.
Always Best Care Senior Services provides senior care in communities of Northwest Louisiana, including Caddo, Bossier, Webster, Claiborne, Red River, Sabine and Natchitoches parishes, and Minden.
Always Best Care combines national strength and standards with local accessibility and personal service.
Carter is a local resident who takes pride in helping families care for their loved ones.
“Our goal is to join your family's journey and provide the absolute best care plan for your loved one,” he said. “Our entire team has your loved one’s best interests at heart, and we'll ensure that exceptional service and care is provided to all family members.”
Lauve's PDHC (Pediatric Day Health Care) is owned by Crystal Lauve, whose last name may be pronounced “love” for a reason as it reflects everything for which her business stands – the love her staff gives the children for whom they care.
"I feel very honored, and it just makes us want to continue to do the best we can possibly do and love on our babies and do what we can to help them progress," Lauve said.
Lauve's PDHC is one of the several businesses receiving the honor of Top Businesses of the Year award, and it is an achievement that is also close to her heart.
"It's amazing," Lauve said. “The recognition is something that our (children’s) parents can be proud of. We run a very open-door day care and keep our parents
very involved and make sure we follow our rules and regulations to the letter of the law and be the best we can possibly be because these children don’t have a voice of their own. We are that voice for them.”
Lauve's PDHC provides medical health-care services to infants, toddlers and children from birth to age 21 whose medical conditions require technologybased and/or skilled nursing intervention.
Licensed by the Louisiana Department of Health & Hospitals, Lauve's PDHC offers a physician-ordered multidisciplinary service, bundling a comprehensive assortment of pediatric care in a non-hospital setting. This model accommodates the highest skill level of pediatric care.
Patients have access to a multidisciplinary team of highly skilled RNs, LPNs, physical therapists, occupational therapists and oral/motor speech pathologists. Social workers and dieticians can be arranged on an as-needed basis. The medical director provides input relevant to the processes prescribed by each child's physician.
"It is a niche program," Lauve said.
“You must have a doctor’s orders for a medically complex child that requires daily skilled nursing intervention.”
Pediatric Day Health Care services can be utilized in lieu of or in addition to private duty nursing in the home. Children must have a skilled need – whether acute, chronic and/or intermittent.
At any given time, there may be no more than 17 children at the center or as few as 10; however, there is always a three-to-one care ratio. Transportation is provided to and from the center.
July 3, 1925, the Strand Theatre began life as a premier entertainment venue, offering both movies and vaudeville shows.
“In the dark days, when it looked as though she would be demolished, it was the community that stepped up to save her,” said Jenifer Hill, executive director of the Strand. “She has a grace and a beauty that is felt by all who enter. She is fiercely loved by the community members who have grown up with her. She is a part of their past, their present and their future.”
The Strand Theatre will join five other businesses in receiving the honor of Top Businesses of the Year at the J. Pat Beaird Industry & Top Businesses of the Year Awards Luncheon at 11:30 a.m. Sept. 28 at Sam’s Town Casino.
"It was a wonderful feeling of accomplishment knowing that someone nominated the Strand for this award,” Hill said, adding her staff is small and puts in much love and hard work.
“The simple act of recognition means more than you can imagine. The board and the community are proud of what we do, and that makes it all worthwhile,” she said.
The Strand has an annual economic impact of $3.5 million according to the Convention and Tourist Bureau. Annually, the Strand brings an estimated 45,000 people through the doors, including many from out of the area who come in and stimulate the local economy.
"In the course of doing business, we hire local artists, craftsmen, tradesmen and other professionals, other than staff, to help bring the highest quality entertainment to our community,” Hill said.
“It is a unique venue for weddings, historic tours, meetings, receptions, photo shoots, and many hundreds of little feet have grown up dancing on her stage.”
Having celebrated more than 92 years, the board opened an endowment account at the Community Foundation to be used for maintaining the building, and currently in progress is a makeover for the Green Room and dressing rooms/backstage areas. The 33rd season of Strand-presented shows will begin Sept. 30 with a tribute to Ella Fitzgerald, celebrating her 100th birthday.
