The Better Business Bureau serving Northern Colorado and greater Wyoming presented seven 2009 Torch Awards for Business Ethics April 23 in Fort Collins. The winners were selected through a process that involved research by business majors at Colorado State University, University of Northern Colorado and University of Wyoming, and final decisions by a committee of regional business leaders.

Here are brief profiles of the winners in each size category.



Category 4 - 1 to 10 employees - tie



Shredding firm makes Wyoming 'world HQ'

By Luanne Kadlub

news@ncbr.com



CHEYENNE - Tom and Merrie Elsberry, married for 34 years, knew they wanted to move to Wyoming, but what they were going to do once they got here was a mystery. That is until Merrie, who worked at a credit-card bank in Sioux Falls, S.D, struck up a conversation with the driver of a document shredding truck.

"He invited me to come out and introduced me to the guys who owned the shredding company," she recalls.

When the Ellsberrys decided to pursue document shredding as a business, the owners were willing to share their knowledge, including how to write the business plan, how to market, and how to stay on top of regulations.

Just six years later the Ellsberrys, owners of A Thru Z Document Destruction, are the recipients of a Torch Award for companies with 10 or fewer employees.

Starting the company was not as easy as one might think. Finding a loan was impossible, even with their stellar credit ratings, so they put the "substantial" startup costs on all of their credit cards. The debt was paid off in four years.

The couple now call Cheyenne their "world headquarters" and Casper their branch. They have two trucks serving clients in both regions and acquire eight to 12 new clients monthly. That could be due in part to what Ellsberry calls their greatest marketing tool: the shredding trucks themselves.

The Ellsberrys are active in the Cheyenne Chamber of Commerce and Tom takes on cooking activities, including the Santa Maria Barbecue at Warren Air Force Base and Cheyenne Frontier Days.

"We raise our hands a lot," Merrie Ellsberry said. "We have a great time, make new friends, see new people and get to be real involved."

Ellsberry said she and her husband have no plans to add an additional truck any time soon, but they have started a second company, Jewell & Associates, to mentor people who want to set up their own document shredding businesses. They just finished training the fifth company.





Financial planning team focuses on ethics

By Steve Porter

sporter@ncbr.com



FORT COLLINS - Five years ago, Donna Chapel decided to take her growing company - SB Investment Advisors - to the next level and invited fellow investment professional Dennis Collins to join in that transformation. It was a decision that resulted in Chapel and Collins LLC becoming one of the most successful wealth management companies in the region.

The company is the recipient of this year's Torch Award for companies with 10 or fewer employees.

With offices in Fort Collins and Denver, Chapel and Collins now manage more than $150 million in client investments. Chapel said she credits the company's success to "doing the right thing."

"I'd like to hope it's always doing the right thing for our clients, always putting their best interests at the heart of every decision," she said.

Chapel said she and Collins always strive to stay educated and up-to-date on the latest aspects of the financial planning industry. "That's something we're very proud of," she said.

Chapel said with the ongoing economic downturn and meltdown in the financial world, there's never been a better time to re-evaluate one's financial investments and future.

"We're finding we're working very long days now," she said. "Almost everyone needs to revisit their financial goals and make sure their investments are in order."

Chapel said the five-person company has always had a strong commitment to maintaining its reputation by observing a high ethical code when conducting its business relations with its clients. She said receiving an award based on ethics was "such an honor."

"We have always made ethics the focus of our mission and our daily interaction with clients, and to be recognized for that is incredible."

Category 3 - 11 to 99 employees - three-way tie



VFR Design respects triple bottom line

By Kate Hawthorne

khawthorne@ncbr.com



FORT COLLINS - Good things come in threes. Take Vaught Frye Ripley Design Inc.

When architects Frank Vaught and Joe Frye officially joined forces with landscape architect Linda Ripley in July - after more than a decade of sharing office space and many clients - the resulting company became the only one in the region to offer three services under one roof: architecture, landscape architecture and land planning.

Over three decades, as individual practitioners and as Vaught-Frye Architects PC and VFRipley Associates Inc., the firms have won awards for residential, commercial and public projects - another three - and have developed corporate policies built around ethical practices toward clients, employees and the environment.

So, it is only fitting that Fort Collins-based VFR is one of the three companies recognized this year with a Torch Award in Category 3 - businesses with between 11 and 99 employees.

With clients, VFR is known for continuing communication, making client satisfaction a measure of corporate success. As a result of building and nurturing long-lasting relationships and a reputation for creative, practical design solutions, VFR has grown its project list through referrals and repeat business.

With employees, VFR has created a culture based on doing what is right, building trust and ethical behavior among its more than two dozen employees. Among the many benefits, including paid health coverage, flexible hours and a standard four-and-a-half day week, the volunteer support program has helped employees and their families log thousands of hours of community service work. In addition, employees can elect payroll withholding to donate to the in-house fund that supports local charities chosen by annual vote.

With the environment, VFR is committed to best practices, from the LEED-certified professionals on staff to participating in the Fort Collins Climate Wise program, and has been recycling for decades. Employees are encouraged to use alternative transportation to and from work, and can use the company hybrid vehicle to make business calls during the day.

McWhinney follows gold to responsibility

By Noah Guillaume

nguillaume@ncbr.com



LOVELAND - McWhinney takes pride in its gold-oriented employees. This pride has nothing to do with the precious metal or helping pad the bottom line, but everything to do with a company culture that follows the most golden of rules, gold-star efforts, and gold-level ethical standards. For its golden pursuits, McWhinney is one in a three-way tie for this year's Better Business Bureau Torch Award for businesses with 11 to 99 employees.

New-employee orientation at McWhinney is not a one-day affair, just leafing through the company handbook. New hires go through a lengthy process to learn the company's beliefs, culture and standards. Employees are encouraged to confront any staff member at any level whose ethics may be in question. Any ethical dilemmas are resolved with McWhinney's Golden Rules of the Road: Assume the best; Tell me first; Fix the problem, not the blame.

Keeping employees happy and comfortable is a priority for McWhinney. Perks include flexible work hours, massages on Friday, team-building exercises, and two paid hours to a charity of the employee's choice. In 2008, McWhinney was ranked No. 11 on the list of the 50 Best Small and Medium Companies to Work in America by the Society for Human Resource Management and the Great Places to Work Institute. This is up two positions from its No. 13 position in 2007.

Building to "green" standards can be a complex and costly proposition for a real estate development firm, but in 2007, McWhinney adopted a company-wide plan to maximize "a triple bottom line of People, Planet and Profit." Impacts of this adoption can be seen from the company's internal recycling program all the way up to making sure its new buildings recycled any construction waste, are built with low-impact practices, and are energy efficient.





Colorado CustomWare lives, breathes accountability

By Kristen Tatti

ktatti@ncbr.com



FORT COLLINS - It took 20-year-old Colorado CustomWare Inc. 15 years to devise a mission statement.

President and CEO Lori Schlotter explained that mission statements usually focus on what a company does, not necessarily its culture or identity. The company finally came up with a statement that embodies both its operations and culture: "Empowering people to change the world."

Schlotter admits that it might seem pretty lofty for a company that develops assessment and collection software technology for municipal use. However, the firm takes its commitment to people very seriously.

"It's about how we treat each other here," Schlotter said. "We're all responsible for holding people accountable."

The company's 80-plus employees have split into small groups, or accountability teams, that meet several times in the six weeks between staff meetings. Each employee identifies one personal and two business goals that the group will help them focus on and reach.

Colorado CustomWare also engages its employees in corporate responsibility initiatives. The company donates $100 for each employee to organizations of the employee's choice, and Schlotter is encouraging employees to participate in "Golfing for Gavin," a May 30 fundraiser at Pelican Lakes for a young boy with a rare brain disorder. She will personally pay the $440 entry fee for the company team that raises the most money and will host a party the evening before for participating employees.

Encouragement such as this - and the accountability teams - forms the company culture.

Accountability within the company and community leads to accountability to its customers. Twice-monthly "Coffee Club" sessions give customers a chance to explore different aspects of the functionality of the software. Colorado CustomWare boasts a near-perfect customer retention rate.

"We've only just begun," Schlotter said.

Of its 5,000 potential customers, the company has contracts with 65 for its assessment program. The collection software program, which has not been officially launched yet, has garnered three contracts.

The company has seen marked growth in the past few years - increasing revenues and employment consistently for at least six years.

"We're not running a sprint - it's a marathon," Schlotter said. "We might be at mile five or six."





Category 2 - 100 to 999 employees



Professional Finance focuses on best outcomes for all

By Kristen Tatti

ktatti@ncbr.com



GREELEY - Ethics is not typically associated with collection agencies, which makes the Torch Award honor even sweeter for Michael Shoop.

Shoop's Professional Finance Co. Inc. breaks the stereotype, focusing internally on good operational practices and externally on the best outcome not only for its customers, but also for its clients.

Greeley-based PFC has been in operation for more than 100 years. Shoop began working for the company in 1980 and purchased it in 1993. He made a lot of changes, but the company culture of support and understanding has always been there.

"Our mission is to be a successful collection company and to produce extraordinary results for our clients, but to do it with integrity and the dignity of the consumer in mind," he said.

The company places a lot of emphasis on making the workplace a constructive, positive place hoping that atmosphere transfers to the collection activities. PFC offers various awards and activities to encourage employees, including a monthly chair massage therapy day. A satisfying work environment is important in an industry that has the potential for high stress.

"We have a job to do, and it's a difficult job," Shoop said.

Its debt collection work sets PFC apart from the industry. The company starts with the first-party receivable solution, in which attempts are made to contact the debtor before the amount owed is flagged as bad debt. This allows for solutions that can keep the debt off credit records.

The company is also careful to let consumers know their legal rights and tries to set up manageable payment plans. It will release wage garnishment if the debtor is willing to enter into a payment plan. In the current economy, these measures are becoming increasingly important.

"We have to enable consumers to be able to pay," Shoop said.

PFC is seeing smaller payments and longer contracts. During 2008, the company saw its largest percentage increase in new business as its collections remained stable. Shoop feels that PFC's methods, while outside the norm, are adding to the company's success.

"Our results are above the averages in all the vertical markets we work in," he said.

During the last five years, PFC has seen its business double. The company now employs 120, all in Greeley, serving customers throughout the Midwest.





Category 1 - more than 1,000 employees



PVHS lauded for quality, ethics

By Steve Porter

sporter@ncbr.com



FORT COLLINS - Poudre Valley Health System, encompassing Poudre Valley Hospital in Fort Collins and Medical Center of the Rockies in Loveland, is no stranger to awards. The hospital system consistently racks up quality accolades, winning the Thomson Top 100 Hospital award for five consecutive years and again being named a Magnet Hospital for Nursing Excellence.

But it was in November that PVHS earned the nation's top quality award, capping a 10-year quest for the prestigious Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award.

"I don't know if you can really top that award," said Pam Brock, PVHS's vice president of marketing and strategic planning. "But the way we plan on continuing with the award is to focus on quality improvements. It's just sort of the beginning of what's next."

PVHS is also the recipient of the Torch Award for businesses with 1,000 or more employees.

PVH started as the Larimer County Hospital in 1925, a 40-bed facility on the outskirts of town. The hospital grew with the town, and by the 1960s the time was ripe to create the Poudre Valley Hospital District, thanks to the Colorado Legislature allowing the hospital to be funded by property taxes.

That setup continued for 30 years. In 1994 the district board restructured, doing away with its mill levy funding and turning hospital management over to a not-for-profit charitable corporation under a 50-year lease.

PVHS has grown rapidly since. In 2000, the Harmony Campus on East Harmony Road opened, and in 2007, MCR began serving the growing need for health care in the region's most dynamic growth area around Centerra.

PVHS's motto is "Do the right thing because it's the right thing to do," and Brock said the system's 4,000-plus employees are deeply committed to making that motto a reality every day.

"We look at all of our processes and make sure we're doing the best we can in the most efficient way," she said. "I believe when we do that, it begins to show."