ROSEMONT, Ill. (Jan. 11, 2014) — Wholesale distributor K&M Tire Inc., which has experienced exponential growth in recent years, is heading into 2014 focused on becoming the leading and most trusted provider of tires in all of its geographic regions.
That direction is guided by new mission and vision statements the firm's management recently crafted.
"We've had the same one since I started,…mission, vision and values," said Cheryl Gossard, K&M vice president, who leads the Delphos, Ohio-based tire distributor along with her father and company founder Ken Langhals.
"It's been the same for more than 20 years, and we just felt it was time to review it and update it and make sure it was saying what we really wanted it to say and so it would give our employees a direction on how we wanted them to conduct business," Ms. Gossard said.
Interviewed during K&M's recent 2014 Tire Dealer Conference in Rosemont in suburban Chicago — attended by 700 tire dealers, suppliers and company employees — Ms. Gossard said an important aspect of the mission statement is continuous improvement in all areas of the business.
"That's really important to us and something we've been talking about for the last several years," she said.
To support this effort, K&M is adding a director of training and development, who will "focus on working with our people and developing our team," Ms. Gossard said.
Updating K&M's mission and vision statements involved reading books, listening to speakers on the subject and working with Joe Calhoon, a recognized authority on leadership development and organizational performance.
"Working with him is why we started to look at it," Ms. Gossard said, "and he helped us so we knew exactly what should be in the vision statement, what should be in the mission statement."
