Message from the Chair

BY MARIE HOLLIDAY, CPA

This month we celebrate the Marvin S. Gilman Superstars in Business award winners. These awards are given annually to businesses in recognition of their outstanding achievements and distinctive approaches to managing day-to-day operations. Even if you have not participated in the Superstars in Business awards program, you can learn from the application process in order to evaluate where your business is relative to peers and what additional steps may be needed to stay successful well into the future.

The Superstars application requires businesses and nonprofits to perform a critical assessment of their organization’s practices. The questions look at all aspects of the entity, from purpose to metrics to community. This selfevaluation is designed not only to celebrate your successes but to examine the areas needing improvement as well.

These are the kinds of questions every business, regardless of size, should address at least annually:

Purpose: What’s your mission statement and/or philosophy? How do you align your day-to-day operations to this statement/philosophy?

Metrics: What are your key metrics and how are you measuring results? How do you use metrics to measure performance and plan for the future?

Customers/Supporters: How do you engage with your customers/supporters? How do you differentiate yourself from your peers/competitors? How do you react to complaints and/or bad press?

Workforce: How do you recruit, train, and retain employees, volunteers, and/or staff? How do you engage your staff so that they feel a part of the mission?

Adversity: What challenges have you had to overcome? What did you learn in overcoming the challenge and how did your business become more resilient as a result?

Giving Back: Does the entire organization engage in the community, and how does it align with your mission and values?

I’ve had the privilege of being personally involved with the Superstars in Business program, as an applicant as well as a member of the selection committee. When the Cover & Rossiter leadership team met to address the application questions, it was a humbling experience. Sure, we celebrated areas where the firm excelled, such as leadership development, expertise in niche industries, and adopting a futureready mindset. However, the discussion also opened our eyes to areas that needed work, such as measuring client satisfaction.

I would also like to congratulate all of this year’s deserving winners. Small businesses and nonprofits are the backbone of local communities as they create 62% of new jobs and generate 44% of U.S. economic activity, according to the Small Business Administration.

As a member of the selection committee, I was particularly impressed with the ingenuity of the award winners. The experience as a committee member gave me a sense of great pride in the accomplishments of businesses in our state, and I look forward to working with each of these businesses as chair of the State Chamber’s Board of Directors.

On behalf of the Delaware State Chamber I would like to thank the Gilman family for their support of this award for the past 25 years—a monumental anniversary. Their commitment to Delaware’s business and nonprofit community is a testament to the ideals promoted by the State Chamber.

I would also like to congratulate all of this year’s deserving winners. Small businesses and nonprofits are the backbone of local communities as they create 62% of new jobs and generate 44% of U.S. economic activity, according to the Small Business Administration.

I hope these lessons from the Superstars will encourage you to do a self-evaluation of your own business or nonprofit. You’ll be amazed at what you will learn!

Marie Holliday, CPA is managing director of Cover & Rossiter.