Power of One Principle – Welcome Change

The pace of change has never been faster, and it will never be this slow again. Innovation will continue, customer demands will evolve and disruption of all sorts will continue, including a pandemic. As Darwin famously said, “It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.”

Our sixth Power of One Principle encourages all of us to be adaptable, be curious, adopt a growth mindset, and remain open to new ideas so that we can remain agile. It also represents VGM’s commitment to make sure that each of our employee-owners has access to the training, technology, and workplace flexibility that they need to do their job to the best of their ability under any circumstances. We can’t be a “one size fits all” employer at a time when our workforce and the challenges that it’s expected to tackle are more diverse than ever before.

This principle reminds us we cannot allow the nostalgia of how things used to be to dictate how we proceed. VGM has been around for 34 years; and for all the history and stability that signifies, we are, by necessity, a different company than we were just a few short years ago. The world changes, we either adapt and evolve or we become left behind.

There are many forces against the growth mindset and willingness to change. The status quo gets very comfortable. Our echo chambers reinforce what we already believe. How we see it, or how we do it, is often the “easy button.” But embracing a growth mindset and the possibility of change – adapting the way work can be done, evolution in the needs of our customers, emergence of information that informs our opinions, disruption in our outlook – is central to being successful and satisfied in every day forward.

Mike Mallaro