BEST PLACES TO WORK - MADISON MAGAZINE
CG Schmidt - One of Madison Magazine's 2010 Best Places to Work Ten businesses that go above and beyond the standard cubicle culture
By Maggie Ginsberg-SchutzMarch 18, 2010Click here for the full storyDevelopment is also key to any good organization, but training must go far beyond technical skills. CG Schmidt [pictured above], a construction management and general contracting firm, schools its employees around its core values, with the hope they will feel empowered to make critical decisions with those values in mind—which, as senior VP and twenty-year employee Dan Davis puts it, eliminates ethical gray areas. “You can make a mistake, as long as your motivation is that you’re doing the right thing for the client,” says Davis. “It’s clear what the company’s values are, and we’re trained to just do the right thing and the company will back you up.”
Connection to the community and feeling a part of something bigger than a paycheck are qualities in abundance among this year’s winners. CG Schmidt bestows its financial Ovation Award twice a year for small to mid-sized, lesser-known nonprofit businesses within the community.
It’s easy to tell what CG Schmidt’s values are: Caring. No surprises. Integrity. Accountability. Innovation. Excellence. It’s easy to tell, because they’re listed everywhere—on the whiteboard in the conference room, on the note cards in employees’ wallets, on their business cards. But most of all, they personify them daily. “We’re a family-owned company,” says president and CEO Rick Schmidt, “and we consider all of our employees family.”