A Business Of Principles
Each of the Manthei
brothers may be intensely independent but they all share a common commitment. It’s commitment from a faith that lays the
foundation for both their business and personal lives. They acquired it from their parents.
“There are principles we
do business by that we think are very important,” explained Tom Manthei. “These principles are based on many of the
teachings we’ve found in the Bible.
Teamwork is one example. Teamwork
is a concept that we’ve found allows common people to accomplish uncommon
goals. You can take a group of average
guys – they don’t have to be really talented, just average – but if they work
together in a team and they contribute their strong point and cover the other
person’s weak point they can accomplish uncommon goals.”
In spite of the different
personalities that make up the Manthei family, and even in light of the
occasional differences of opinion or outright conflict, the mutual respect these
six men have for one another is clearly apparent. Beyond respect there is evident an
appreciation for individual skills and talents.
“Tom is a very good leader
and very good at bringing all the team members together,” Mark Manthei
described his cousin. “He gets everybody
on the same page and pulling in the same direction.”
And Tom had this to say
about Mark. “Mark has a lot of
analytical ability. He can think through
the scenario of numbers, how a project fits together and how it makes sense
from a business point of view.”
“Ben connects with people
and does a great job with marketing,” Tim told the Secrets Of Success camera.
Ben described Jim
Manthei. “Jim is the marine type of
worker because we give him the most difficult jobs that nobody wants to do and
he gets the job done. He brings a
tremendous creative energy to every project.”
“Dan’s strong points are
in the technical areas,” Tom said of this brother. “He’s very good at bringing ideas to
life. He’s very good at building, the
mechanical aspects of projects, engineering and designing. A lot of the machinery that we have in our veneer
mill has been designed and built by my brother, Dan.”
“Tim is a real entrepreneurial
sort of guy,” explained Mark. “He comes
up with entrepreneurial business ideas and is good at presenting those to the
group.”
It might be tempting to
believe that the Mantheis were just performing sibling public relations duties
because a television camera was pointing at them. The truth, though, is that the sincerity in
their observations is one of the foundations the success of their business is
based upon.
“As we’re all strong
willed we all know how to fight hard for the idea we bring to the table, but
we’re committed in the group to kick around these ideas,” offered Ben. “And by the time we’re done tweaking these
ideas based on everybody’s input we usually come out with the right decision.”
Tom offered this view,
once again emphasizing the concept of teamwork.
“When everyone learns to contribute their strong point and cover the
other person’s weak point, that’s the key to success. Human nature is just the opposite. We tend to pick on the other person’s weak
point and while we’re doing it forget our own strong points. Covering another guy’s weak point is not
ignoring it. It’s identifying it, and then
purposefully covering for it. If he does
the same thing for you, then as a whole most of the weak points disappear. All the bases get covered. Teamwork enables all the bases to be covered.”
“When we come out of a
meeting, it’s rare that any one person’s gotten everything he wants,” Ben
added. “But whatever the final decision
we all get behind it because we know the decision we made together is better
than a decision one of us might have made as an individual. We end up with a better end product. The Bible has a proverb, 24:6, that says, ‘Victory
depends on having many counselors.’”
“It makes the company as a
whole stronger,” Tom expanded. “There’s
another verse, in Ecclesiastes. It says,
‘Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves. A cord of three strands is not quickly
broken.’”
© 2012 Philip Kassel
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