CULTURE

Find out about our company history, philosophy, products

We have given a lot of thought to what Johnsonville stands for in the minds of our Members, our customers and the community as a whole. We've talked to many people and listened to the stories that tell about great performances within our organization. During these conversations, five values become apparent over everything else: integrity, innovation, commitment, continuous learning, and teamwork. It is amazing how these five values are woven throughout our entire organization. Since these values are so important to our company, we want to share them with you.

Integrity is the bedrock of our company. It is the most important and the first of all our values. You cannot possess a certain degree or amount of integrity, you either have it or you don't and if you don't have it, you don't have a place at Johnsonville.

So what is integrity? Integrity means we are true to our values. We say what we do and we do what we say. We walk the talk.

Integrity also means that when we see someone that is not true to our values, we speak up immediately, directly and respecfully, no matter who it may be.
 

The world is changing fast. We must learn and improve rapidly if we want to have the highest impact on our customers' success. Continuous Learning is about improving our products, services, processes, and relationships. It's also about improving us, as individuals. Continuous learning is comprised of two key components, Member Development and Continuous Improvement. These components require a commitment to learning and self-development for ourselves and our company.

When you focus on Member Development, you do the following:

•You understand your strengths and weaknesses.
•You put yourself in situations where you can learn new things.
•You take an interest in the world around you.
•You learn from your mistakes.
•You read or take formal classes when you need to.
•You meet people who work at other companies and learn from them.
•You ask others for feedback and use their advice.
•You write and follow through on a development plan each year.
•You use what you learn.
•You do whatever it takes to help others develop their skills.
The word "you" stands out here. That is because it is up to you to learn and grow. Others can help, but nobody can do it for you.

When we focus on Continuous Improvement, we do the following:

•We eliminate unnecessary work.
•We identify cause and effect relationships, and deal with the root cause of a problem.
•We look at costs and benefits to decide on the best approach.
•We develop better, faster, and more efficient ways of doing things.
•We find and share best practices.

Continuous improvement is about the word "we". We must remove boundaries and work together to create improvements at the rate and speed needed by our customers. Our ability to do this has had a tremendous impact on our success as a company.
 

Commitment is absolutely critical to the success of Johnsonville. You can have all the skill and talent in the world, but without commitment, you cannot achieve your goals. Stories of individual, team, and customer success make up the story of Johnsonville.

Commitment doesn't just happen. The commitment you see at Johnsonville is the result of almost two decades of the Johnsonville Way in action.

"We understand that our commitment to stretch, grow and excel is an unending one. This is the Johnsonville Way and we are committed to it."
 

Innovation is one of our core values because it is critical to the successful completion of our mission. Innovations transform something, whether it's a method, a product, a process, a business, a market or an industry or even organizations in general. We have had innovations at Johnsonville that fit each of those categories. They have come from our continuous drive to become the best sausage company in the world. Our constant pursuit of this goal leads us to the continual development of new methods and approaches to remove the obstacles that stand between our goal and us.

Our history of innovation includes examples of innovations that didn't work. We make mistakes because we are always pushing the envelope. That comes with the territory. If they don't work, we cut our losses and move on. If they do work, we get the benefit for a long time.
 

When we think of the "Johnsonville Way," most of us think of teamwork. This value was the driving force behind the first revolution in the 1980's. Teams defined and implemented the Johnsonville Way. Some may remember pride teams, spirit teams and great performance teams. While the teams took many forms, they all took ownership for excellence in their areas of expertise. This was more than simply delegating tasks. Teams defined strategies, plans and budgets to help Johnsonville become the "Best Sausage Company in the World." By working as a team and balancing the knowledge and skills of all the team members, performance and results have been greater than any one individual could have accomplished.

We define teamwork as follows:

Team: A group of individuals organized to work together.

Teamwork: Cooperative and shared efforts by the members of a group or team to achieve common goals.

Johnsonville Teamwork philosophy:

• Teams execute our strategy
• Team goals are more important than individual goals
• We will accomplish more together than individually
• We help each other be successful
• We are all accountable to each other and the team
• We will all learn from each other

Every day at Johnsonville teams are sharing information, challenging each other and making decisions that move us closer to being the "Best Sausage Company in the World." The core of this value is working with people to achieve more than you could alone. Sure, it takes more time, but the results are much better and the rewards are much greater when you accomplish it as a team.
 

We at Johnsonville have a moral responsibility to become the Best Company in the World.

We will do this as each one of us becomes better than anyone else at defining, and then serving, the best interests of all those who have a stake in our success.

We will succeed by setting near-term objectives and long-term goals that will require a personal growth and superlative performance by each of us. We will change any objectives or goals that no longer require personal growth and superlative performance to ones that do.

As an individual, I understand The Johnsonville Way is about my performance and my accountability to the team. My commitment to stretch, grow and excel is an unending one.

This is the JOHNSONVILLE WAY and I am committed to it.