The Newcomen Society of the United States Honoring Keving Hancock of Hancock Lumber September 2002

Governor Angus King's Introduction of Kevin Hancock:

As I have grown older I have noticed a trend in this country toward an assumption that every problem there is a governmental solution. Every problem has to have a government solution. No matter what it is it’s the governments fault or there should be a program or law to fix it. Indeed, I think, this may sound odd coming from the guys that head the government in this state. But I think that’s wrong. I think government has an important role but often it’s at the margins. The real heart of what happens in society is the actions taken by people in this room. In deciding weather to make investments, how to treat their employees, how to build their businesses, how to contribute to the community, whether it to be a little league coach, or a Sunday school teacher or whatever. That’s what makes this country worth living in. And that’s the kind of thing the government can’t really do and shouldn’t really try to do. So I’m here as a representative of the government to honor a guy who is not in the government but is in what I would call the real world of solving problems and dealing with people on a day to day basis.

A friend of mine once said they think that Washington is the engine of the country but in reality, my friend said, they may have the steering wheel but it ain't connected to the engine. The engine is in Portland and Seattle and Dallas and Pittsburgh and all over the United States. And the engine of Maine is all over our state in Portland and Bangor and Casco and all the parts of the state that have to work together make this a wonderful community. And that’s what I’ll end with is the idea of community and that’s what Maine really is… and I sometimes think that we who live here don’t really realize what a special thing that we have: that we know each other and care about each other and are close to one another. So if you stop on the NJ turnpike and you’re from Maine, and a car stops next to you with Maine license tags, I can guarantee that within 30 sec you can establish someone you know in common. That’s what Maine is all about. And that’s what’s really special about it.

We know Kevin and we know what he’s contributed. It is he and Matt and the other members of the family, including his (deceased) dad who have contributed so much to Maine over the years, in terms of the real values of the civilization and the real values of Maine as a community. So that’s why I am here is to say thank you. I am sorry I have to leave. I have to get back over to the conference they think I am still at. (laugh) I didn’t want to miss the opportunity just to say something nice about Kevin and Allison and the family and these wonderful young ladies (daughters) who are with us. Also, as I look around this room, I see so many people who have gotten this award or who could get this award. This room is full of people who are making the same kind of contribution to Maine that the Hancock family has done. So congratulations and thanks Kevin. I am honored to be able to be here and say thank you on behalf of the people of Maine.”

Excerpts of Kevin Hancock’s acceptance of the Maine Newcomen Society’s Award 2002:

“When I think about the joys or advantages of working for a multigenerational family business there are three that come to mind first and strongest. The first is intensity, family, business, together family business intensity. When you are in a family business you wear it on your shirt sleeve, you are emotionally involved you are deeply passionate and the lines between work and play gets very, very blurry, and these are all things that I enjoy and are meaningful to me and I think powerful to any multigenerational organization. Ralph Sama one of our former long time executives and stockholders once said your greatest strength is also your greatest weakness. Which I have always thought it is a very interesting observation and I think family in business do bring challenges. But much more than they bring challenges, they bring passion and purpose to work that we feel so lucky to be a part of.

The second joy to me with respect to being part of a multigenerational family business is momentum. Momentum, that I certainly would have had no ability at this point in my life or in my entire lifetime to recreate the momentum that Hancock lumber had already created for itself before I ever became a part of it. Momentum in reputation, momentum in market presence. Momentum in capitalization, momentum in systems and most importantly, momentum in people. And we are so lucky as the 6th generational of the family businesses to have inherited the exceptional work of those who have gone before us.

The third joy for me and perhaps for me the most meaningful about being in a multigenerational family business is you get to be teammates with those members of your family who are no longer physically here they ‘re here always in spirit they are not here with us physically in presence and one of the great joys of my work is to come to work every day and feel like and know that I am a teammate with my Dad, my grandfather or those generations that I have not even met If you look at things that drive me and motivate me or make me feel lucky to be able to do what I do that is probably the most significant.

Then if I look specifically at Hancock Lumber, I think there are three core concepts that have served our company very well through the years that have helped create a successful organization. The first can be best summed in the phrase we often use is, ‘always changing to remain the same.’ If I had to describe Hancock Lumber’s business philosophy to anyone I met, that would be one of the first phrases I would go back to—‘always changing to remain the same.’ What that means to me is that in a 6th generational family-business, everything about how your company operates needs to be constantly up for grabs--open to improvement--except for your core values--that’s the only thing that doesn’t change. The mission, the values stay the same. The business needs to reinvent itself so that it can continue to protect and stand for those values that the company believes in so strongly, ‘always changing to remain the same.’

The second concept to us is stewardship. This was a phrase, a concept, that Hancock lumber had practiced for many years. My dad, late in his life, is the one that actually captured the term, coined it, articulated it, represented it so well for all of us. But if you ever heard him talk about the term of stewardship he described it as an alternative to the traditional concept of ownership. Stewardship for him was an alternative to the traditional concept of ownership. What it really meant to him and what it means to me that I learned from him, is that I am a caretaker not an owner, and just one of many caretakers of that Hancock Lumber tradition. That my job, if I do it well, is to work with all the other people on our team to help leave our company in better shape than it was when we found it--out of respect for those who have gone before us, and for the benefit of those who shall follow. One of the reasons I love this concept of stewardship is that it can be applied to anything. You can take that concept and apply it to a family, you can apply it to a church, you can apply it to a school, you can apply it to a community and you can apply it to an organization, a business. One of the other reasons I love the concept is because anybody can do it. The one thing we ask everybody who joins the Hancock Lumber team to do, it’s the only thing we ask them to do other than be safe, is to be a steward. And I’ll give you the simplest example. In our business we hire a fair number of high school and college kids in the summer to put away pine in retail store, to sweep a barn, to wait on customers. And I look them right in the eye on new employee orientation day, and I tell them that they too can be stewards of that part of the company--that they are responsible, even though they are only going to be with us for 60 or 90 days, it transcends time, you can always leave it in better shape than it was when you found it.

Another way we articulate how we feel about the concept of stewardship is profit. Hancock Lumber, as I am sure all companies in this room, is focused on profit. We measure and track financial statements and spreadsheets, but we are very quick with our people to help them understand why. The way I explain it to them again in our new employee orientation day, would be as follows: Hancock Lumber is not in business to make money for the sake of piling it up. It doesn’t motivate me personally and doesn’t motivate us corporprately. But let me tell you why profit is critical.

The profit is a big part of the fuel that drives our stewardship. One of the exercises that I literally take them through involves asking each to write down a list of all of the good and noble things that they think a good company should do. We share the list, and all of the answers are good answers: ‘you should pay taxes, you should create jobs, you should create investments, support the Little League, support the 4H club,’ and we put all those ideas on the board. All of them are great things to do! And then I say to them: ‘now let’s find one thing that every concept on that list has in common.’ And that one thing is that none of those things are possible, long term, unless the company is profitable. And in fact the more profitable we are the more stewardship power we possess. We take that approach as a way to get our entire team to visualize the concept of profit--to be excited about the concept of profit and to see how everybody will benefit from us being successful as an organization.

The third key to Hancock Lumber success to me, and the most important is people. For a local small town family business we have had an amazing track record of being able to get exceptional, people to want to come be a part of our team. And any success that this company has achieved is mostly the responsibility of people who’s last names are not Hancock that are with us today and that have been with us in the past and do such an exceptional job. We are very, very blessed with the people that we have been able to share our business with. That, in the end, is the most important part of Hancock Lumber’s success formula.”

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