KW Industries
Joe: When my son was eight he had a career day and it's dangerous to ask a banker to take your son on career day, but I immediately thought of Jim. The first question was, "Can you tell me what you do?" And Jim said, "Charlie, I know you like baseball.I'm like the manager of the baseball team. All nine players have their role and they have to be good at what they do." That's what I do here, I try to identify the right people for the right positions and make sure they all work together.
Jim: I enjoyed meeting his son and we're friends today. I do see a lot of parallels between KW Industries and Origin in our abilities to do things quickly and without a lot of the red tape.
Joe: I joined Origin Bank because it's a little more entrepreneurial than the previous large bank that I worked at. It's nice to be empowered to serve your customers and not have to get other people involved to get decisions or get things done for your customer.
Jim: We're a smaller company, we have to do the same thing. And so we understand how important it is to be able to deal directly with the customer and get the answer as quick as you possibly can.
Joe: I've always enjoyed manufacturing, so obviously when I go on a plant tour like this, I'm kind of a kid in a candy store. When we first met, he took me through the plant and I could see his passion for his business. But it goes beyond that, he knew every one of his employees by name. And I see that's a person that pays attention to detail and treats their people well, and there's more to it than just making a light pole.
Jim: I had an opportunity to buy this company that I worked at for 40 years. I didn't know anything about buying a business, and because of my relationship with Joe, I felt comfortable talking to him and say, "Hey, what do I need to do? How do I need to do this?" And Joe was right there to help me go through the whole process and that means a lot. You've got to have good people behind you in order to run your business. There's thousands of banks in this town, what makes them stand out are the employees that work for the bank.