Tag: Company Culture

EXAIR Founder’s Day 2019

Published on by Bryan PetersLeave a comment

EXAIR celebrates Founder’s Day each year on February 22nd (or the closest working day) in order to commemorate the birthday of our founder, Roy Sweeney. He founded the company in 1983 and drove EXAIR to become the strong, successful and innovative company that it has over the years. Today would have been his 85th birthday.

We choose to make this day a celebration and a day to mark our ongoing commitment to the service of others in keeping with the values that Roy and his wife Jackie felt (and feel) very strongly about. It is now up to us to continue to look outside our company, outside ourselves and do what we can to improve the world around us.

As we do every year, EXAIR has made significant donations to organizations that are making a difference right here in our area:

• Dragonfly Foundation – supporting pediatric cancer patients and their families
(www.dragonfly.org)

• Master Provisions – supporting those in need with food, clothing and other items in the Greater Cincinnati area and abroad through mission trips
(www.masterprovisons.org)

• Cincinnati Youth Collaborative – supporting vulnerable children and young adults to overcome obstacles and succeed in education, career, and life
(www.cycyouth.org)

• Lighthouse Youth and Family Services – supporting their Safe and Supported program for LGBTQ youth (www.lys.org)

• DAV – supporting disabled American veterans and their families
(www.dav.org)

• Women’s Crisis Center – supporting victims of domestic violence, sexual assault and sexual abuse
(www.wccky.org)

To further our commitment to others, EXAIR established an Employee Volunteer Program last year that enables every full-time employee with at least 90 days of service to volunteer with organizations of their choice during the normal work week with full pay by EXAIR. I am proud to say that fifteen employees volunteered their time helping other organizations in 2018. Through this program, EXAIR and its employees can have a positive impact on dozens of organizations throughout the year.

So as we celebrate today with lunch from one of Roy’s favorite restaurants – Montgomery Inn – and funny memories, we wish Roy a happy birthday. We miss having him here. We remember what he did for all of us and for countless others. And we pledge to continue his commitment to helping those who need it.

Happy Founder’s Day from everyone at EXAIR!

Bryan Peters

EXAIR Founder’s Day 2018

Published on by Bryan Peters2 Comments

Last year we announced that EXAIR will celebrate Founder’s Day each year on February 22nd (or the closest working day) in order to commemorate the birthday of our founder, Roy Sweeney. He founded the company in 1983 and drove EXAIR to become the strong, successful and innovative company that it has over the years. Today would have been his 84th birthday.

As we plan to every year, we choose to make this day a celebration and a day to mark our ongoing commitment to the service of others in keeping with the values that Roy and his wife Jackie felt (and feel) very strongly about. It is up to us to continue that commitment.

Like last year, we have made significant donations to organizations that are making a difference right here in our area:

• Freestore Foodbank (www.freestorefoodbank.com)

• Ronald McDonald House of Greater Cincinnati (www.rmhcincinnati.org)

• Women Helping Women (www.womenhelpingwomen.org)

• Bethany House Services (www.bethanyhouseservices.org)

• Elementz (www.elementz.org)

We committed last year to expand our community involvement in 2018, and we have delivered upon that promise. I am proud to announce that EXAIR has established an Employee Volunteer Program that enables every full-time employee with at least 90 days of service to volunteer with organizations of their choice during the normal work week with full pay by EXAIR.

Through this further commitment, we expect that EXAIR and its employees will impact not just a handful, but dozens of organizations and make a much larger positive impact in the community starting this year.

So as we celebrate today with cake and funny memories, we wish Roy a happy birthday. We miss having him here. We remember what he did for all of us and for countless others. And we pledge to continue his commitment to helping those who need it.

Happy Founder’s Day from everyone at EXAIR!

Bryan Peters
President
EXAIR Corporation

Escape to the Hills

Published on by Dave WoernerLeave a comment

I’m leaving for a short three day vacation this week in Hocking Hills. This is my biannual family reunion of my Great Grandfather’s family the Trouts. This will be our 7th or 8th trip down there, and I still have yet to go hiking at Old Man’s Cave, the local tourist attraction. I have always stuck closer to the pool and the golf course and away from the trail. Russ Bowman puts me to shame. He heads up there every year with his boys to go hiking and camping, and we tend to stay at a cabin which is more like a hotel with some wood paneling. To each their own.

For my parent’s generation the reunion is a chance to catch up with cousins that they spent summers with growing up. For my generation, it is a chance to meet and reconnect with our second cousins that we normally would only see at weddings and funerals. The three day reunion allows a longer more free flowing opportunity to see who people are. It is a different perceptive to get to know people that have a lot of history in common, but you only see once in a while. Most of the weekend is amazingly unscheduled, so you can come and go as you please.

This will be different for me. I’m taking my son who was born last August to meet his third cousins. It is different for a couple reasons. First, now I don’t just have to worry how I behave at the family reunion. I have to make sure my son doesn’t head-butt the other babies like he has been known to do at day care. Second, my family gets to see him grow up and learn stories about me when I was his age through the eyes of the people that were there and knew me best. I hope they stay away from a few stories until he is older, but probably not.

Getting together with the family reminds me of working here at EXAIR. As we witnessed with the Professor’s departure, and Dear Joe’s departure we see that some people might chose to not come into work everyday anymore, but they are always a member of our community. As time passes we are constantly reminded of their impact. With the Professor’s message we constantly drive to safe customers compressed air energy, and Joe always reminded us that we are here for the customer first, and if you can, help them in any way you should.

But, of course, the messages from those two individuals are the result of EXAIR’s company culture, our product’s ability to solve customer problems, and EXAIR’s commitment to customer service.

Contact an Application Engineer today to join our family of customers.

Dave Woerner
Application Engineer
@EXAIR_DW
DaveWoerner@EXAIR.com

Excellence Is Not An Act, But A Habit

Published on by Dave WoernerLeave a comment

“We Are What We Repeatedly Do. Excellence, then, is not an Act, But a Habit”

In my twitter feed I often see the aforementioned quote that is attributed to Aristotle. As this blog points out, the quote should really be attributed to Will Durant author of The Story of Philosophy, because it is his interpretation of what Aristotle would have said if he spoke English. While writing this blog I found out Aristotle didn’t really write the quote. In retrospect, clearly he didn’t write, if he did it might look something like this “Είμαστε Τι επανειλημμένα Do. Αριστείας, τότε, δεν είναι μια πράξη, αλλά μια συνήθεια”, but I digress.

Working with customers, resellers and catalog houses, I’m amazed at the different company cultures. Some customers will come to me six months before a project comes up to talk about the applications. They ask us for drawings, specifications, and certifications for the products that we recommend for their applications. They want to analyze all possible scenarios and plan for every eventuality.  These customers greatly appreciate our fully loaded knowledge base and availability of technical information.

Other customers call me for a quote and confirmation. They spent some time online, downloaded a CAD model and created a working plan, but before they pull the trigger, they want to run it by someone else. These customer greatly appreciate the fact that the phones are answered by human beings and we have a fully staffed Application Engineering department with engineers who are always eager to discuss applications and possibilities.

Finally, we have the customers, who I never spoke to before that need a product NOW and are willing to do anything to get. Shipping companies love these customers, because we have our products on the shelves ready to ship, but it will cost you air freight and a flux capacitor to get it there yesterday.

 

At EXAIR, our culture expects excellence. And no matter the kind of customer who contacts us, we know you are all trying to achieve it too – we are just trying to help. When our customer calls in to ask for something yesterday, we will already have it on the shelf ready to go. Unless it is a custom product, our production staff has already machined, built, and tested our product to our excellent standard.  I’m constantly amazed at the effort and continued excellence put out by customer service, engineering, marketing, and production. When the customer calls in to ask for product yesterday, 99.98% of the time I’m able to say that the shipment will be at the dock waiting for the shipping truck by 3:00 PM EST. We can typically do that without an extraordinary effort, because we practice excellent customer service everyday. It’s a habit we are not trying to quit.

Dave Woerner
Application Engineer
DaveWoerner@EXAIR.com
@EXAIR_DW