Cisco-Eagle Wins Major Southwest Chapter ESOP Awards
Employee ownership is core to our company
Above: Cisco-Eagle employee-owners Randy Williams, Kevin Harwell, Elizabeth Rather and Logan Beard
One of the reasons we are a great partner to our customers and vendors is that Cisco-Eagle is owned, operated and managed by its employee-owners, all of whom own shares in the company. We were recently recognized by the Southwest Chapter of the ESOP Association for two major accomplishments: Cisco-Eagle is the Southwest ESOP Company of the Year, while Kevin Harwell won the award for 2021 Employee-Owner of the Year.Â
Cisco-Eagle is the Southwest Chapter ESOP Company of the Year for the second year in a row
For the second consecutive year, Cisco-Eagle won ESOP Company of the Year for the Southwest region, which includes employee-owned companies in the states of Texas, Arkansas, Oklahoma, New Mexico and Louisiana.
The Southwest Chapter makes this award to an ESOP company that displays a commitment to employee ownership through its ESOP Association participation, its employee communications efforts and its commitment to supporting employee ownership. The Association awards companies with a clear vision for wealth creation, individual dignity and worth.
According to the ESOP Association, employees should “feel a sense of ownership and that the ESOP is important to the company and its employee owners.”Â
What qualifies an organization for Company of the Year?
The ESOP Association bases this award on core topics like:
- How the company maximizes the value of the ESOP for the employee-owners
- How ownership culture affects how employee-owners approach their work, and how those effects result in higher productivity and profitability
- The company’s participation in the broader ESOP Association and efforts to promote employee ownership
After years of vigilant oversight, Cisco-Eagle is now 100% employee owned, with no outstanding loans, which has a big impact on individual accounts. Our people tend to respond to those benefits with an ownership mindset, making decisions that affect our work and even the company as a whole. We think there’s a lot of power in that autonomy, and we cultivate it by making as much knowledge as possible available to everyone in the company and staying connected to Chapter and national ESOP Association activities.
And we try to take the spirit of employee ownership out into our communities. We organize volunteer activities, promoting our ESOP in the process, and last year we hosted Congressman Kevin Hern to discuss salient supply chain topics and employee ownership.
We do all these things because we believe in the value of ownership. It’s woven into every aspect of our culture.
Kevin Harwell wins Southwest Employee-Owner of the Year
Our 2020-2021 Employee-Owner of the Year, Kevin Harwell, received the same award this year for the entire chapter.
The Southwest Chapter recognized Harwell, who has been with Cisco-Eagle since 1991, for the same traits we saw in him when his fellow employee-owners voted him employee of the year: relentless drive, commitment to excellence, contributions to the company and community and his willingness to constantly use his deep knowledge and experience to help his fellow employee-owners.
About our ESOP ownership
Cisco-Eagle provides exceptional service by employee-owners. We’re 100% owned by our employees.
We believe that no one provides better service than an owner, and based on our customer service ratings, our customers agree. We are all shareholders and partners in the business. For more information about our ownership culture, visit our ESOP page.
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Scott Stone is Cisco-Eagle's Vice President of Marketing with more than thirty years of experience in material handling, warehousing and industrial operations. His work is published in multiple industry journals an websites on a variety of warehousing topics. He writes about automation, warehousing, safety, manufacturing and other areas of concern for industrial operations and those who operate them.