Leadership Lessons: Craig Ruppert

Craig RuppertWhat have you been up to since you won your award in 2008?
We continue to focus on growing our business and keeping our business healthy and profitable.

That starts with the people that work in the company and our focus on providing opportunity for growth and advancement for the real leaders in our business – the ones that run it on a daily basis. That continues to be our primary focus.


What is your take on how the industry will recover from the recent economic struggles?
I think we’ve done what most of our competitors have done.

We’ve stayed focused on our core business. The one good thing about a down economy is that it affects everyone equally, minus the differences in markets and geography we serve.


In your 2008 profile, you talked about recognizing and having parties for employees. Did you cut back on those parties because of the economy?
Generally, the answer is no.

That’s an area where we consciously decided it’s not in our best interest to cut back. Have we changed our approach in certain areas? Yes. We’re always evolving and adjusting. We probably have more branch focused activities and less corporate focused activities in part because we feel like our decentralized branching structure really puts our branches more in touch with what employee milestones and recognitions should be recognized.