In times of rapid change and chaos, there’s often no playbook for leaders faced with solving complex problems. In this talk from Tugboat Institute Gathering of Teams 2021, Everett Harper, CEO of software development company Truss, offers insight into a framework he developed to create a pathway for decision making and engineer structure amidst uncertainty.

Carl Erickson, Founder and Chairman of Atomic Object, had spent 18 years building his Evergreen® company—after a career as an academic—when he realized he had come to a pivotal moment in his life. What he did next significantly impacted his business and his personal well-being.

Michael Horn, Co-founder of the Clayton Christensen Institute for Disruptive Innovation, offers a provocative idea in this talk from Tugboat Institute Gathering of Teams 2021: Silicon Valley is touted as the hub of innovation, with almost all its companies referring to themselves as “disruptive.” But Evergreen® companies, operating with an “impatient for profit, patient for growth” mentality and generational planning horizons, are actually poised to be the engine for future “market-creating” disruptive innovations. Michael’s presentation provides a compelling view of how these innovations can lead to a far greater number of jobs than other innovation types.

In this talk from Tugboat Institute Gathering of Teams 2021, Natalie Nagele, Co-founder and CEO of software development company Wildbit, shares an innovative idea that has transformed her Evergreen® company: We can actually work a lot less.

Paced growth is an essential principle of successful Evergreen® businesses. While growth can be organic or accomplished through new ventures, some Evergreen companies will choose to grow through acquisition. Tom Rosztoczy, CEO of Stotz Equipment, has guided his Evergreen company to grow from three John Deere dealerships in Arizona to 25 stores in eight Western states over the past 20 years. In his presentation from the Tugboat Institute Summit 2018, Tom shares the key factors of that successful acquisition journey and the core values that are integrated into each new acquisition to continue to propel his Evergreen business forward.

Everyone deserves to enjoy delicious, high-quality food in a beautiful setting. At 12 locations in Los Angeles, La Monarca Bakery offers just that—notably in largely Latino neighborhoods often overlooked by investors and business owners. In this presentation from Tugboat Institute Summit 2019, Ricardo Cervantes describes how he and his partner, Alfredo Livas, have committed to delivering a new customer and employee experience in the communities in which La Monarca Bakery operates and their broader dedication to making the world a better place through conservation efforts.

In this panel discussion, presented at the Fourth Annual Olin Family Business Symposium at Olin Business School at Washington University in St. Louis in October 2018, three Tugboat Institute members describe their Evergreen journey and specific events and experiences that reflect their companies’ commitment to Evergreen principles.

An Evergreen business eventually comes with a unique challenge: smoothly transferring control and ownership. At 75, Andrew Kawaja’s father still comes to work each day at IFS Industries, the company he founded in 1972. But the senior Kawaja has already successfully completed the leadership transition to his three sons. In his talk, Kawaja details the three core rules his family has followed for a prosperous and harmonious succession.

Chris Mittelstaedt founded The FruitGuys in 1998 as a way to bring healthy, fresh fruit to offices. In this presentation from Tugboat Institute Summit 2020, Chris shares the unifying theory of doing business that guides the Evergreen® company and keeps the team focused on being in service to others.