Alacriant Employees Brighten Holidays for Local Military Families

The business of the holiday season did not stop employees of Alacriant, Inc. from taking time for some extra shopping and gift-giving. Alacriant partnered with NEOPAT (Northeast Ohio Foundation for Patriotism) to adopt two military families for the holidays.

Last year, NEOPAT and its 36 sponsors helped 44 families. This year that increased to 68 families with the help of 54 sponsors, including Alacriant.

“This is a huge improvement, and we are so grateful for all our sponsors this year,” said Doug and Eneida Dentler, co-chairs of the campaign.

“Adopting” a family included shopping for Christmas presents and delivering them in person. On Dec. 15, when Jeff Berkes, Tina Vanscoy, Susan Lass and Michael Taylor went to the home of five-year Marine Corps veteran, the whole family met them at the door! The first presents the kids opened were new bicycle helmets. After opening them and trying them on, they rushed outside to see their new bikes. The gifts also included clothes, shoes and new bedding.

The father said during the five years of duty, he only saw his family for a total of eight months. “That was the hardest part; I needed to see my girls,” he said.

On Dec. 19, Jeff Berkes, Tina Vanscoy, Phil White and Michael Taylor took gifts to the family of a 15-year veteran of the National Guard, who is a chinook helicopter mechanic. He and his wife, a special needs teacher working on her master’s degree, have three children, all age 3.  The gifts for this deserving family included gift cards for gas and groceries, shoes and, of course, diapers.

Alacriant Undergoes Strategic Planning

Alacriant Inc. is in the process of undergoing a strategic planning process to help guide us as to what we want our future to look like.

This past September, our leadership team attended a two-day, intensive planning session with Synergy Business Group. We took the time to critically examine our company and establish a strategic focus on the areas that we, as a company, can excel.

A large part of this strategic plan is the adoption of our new “Core Values” – Safety, Accountability, Customer-Focused, Respectful, and Teamwork.

At the top of the list is safety.  Safety comes first for our employees at all times.   Next, accountability.  All of us at Alacriant will honor our commitments to our customers and to each other.  Next, customer-focused.  Employees are committed to doing what it takes to meet customer expectations.  Next, respectful.  We treat others professionally, with dignity and courtesy.  Finally, teamwork.  We work together as one for the good of all.

During our strategic planning, we developed our hedgehog.  A hedgehog is a concept that was identified in the book “Good to Great” and has become known for creating focus and driving profitability.   Our hedgehog at Alacriant is consistently executing outcomes critical to our customer’s success.  We want to stand out from our competition. Our goal is to excel at this.  Today, we are good at this. But our goal is not just to be good, but to be outstanding at this.

Our plan also consists of our goals – both long-range and short-range.  Our ultimate goal is to become an outcome-driven organization that will serve our customers with the same dedication and exceptional quality that they have come to expect from us.