Earlier this week my TSG colleagues and I went to lunch to celebrate our 20th anniversary in business. And, they presented me with a beautiful pen to commemorate this event.

Because we have a decimal (i.e., base 10) system of counting, we focus on years ending with zeroes and fives. And so it’s natural that 20 years be celebrated (imagine what we’ll do for 25!).

As we grow older we tend to focus more when we hit 30, 40, etc. and our wedding anniversaries get greater attention when they end with zeroes and fives (my wife and I went to Hawaii for our 35th and haven’t gone anywhere for our last couple; and we exchanged nicer gifts for our 25th).

To let this anniversary go by without acknowledging a few people would be wrong, so I will do that here.

• Patrick Fowler is the #2 person in our firm. He has been with us for over 12 years. He essentially “runs” the firm, being responsible for just about all of our events and programs. I rely upon his advice and support immensely, and am so grateful that he’s with us.
• Chris Spaulding, my older son, joined us almost eight years ago and is responsible for sales and customer service. He, too, has taken on a role of advisor. While having family members in a business can be a challenge, it hasn’t been for us; it’s been quite a joy.
• John Simpson rounds out the management team (that, if you haven’t figured it out, includes Patrick & Chris) and recently celebrated his five year anniversary with our firm. We knew John from his prior role at IDS and were thrilled that we could persuade him to join  us and run our West Coast office. He provides depth that we sorely needed and has been a great asset.
• Doug Spaulding, my younger son, has been with the firm for seven years. He came on to be responsible for the production side of our publishing, and took on the role of editor last year. His love of writing makes him a perfect fit for this position, and I’ve been so proud to see him grow in this position.
• Jaime Puerschner joined the firm more than six years ago to be our event planner, though she does much more than that. Given the many programs we run we felt we needed someone dedicated to ensuring that our events go smoothly, and she has done a fantastic job at it. If, for example, you’ve attended PMAR you know good a job she does at organizing.
• Sue Kneller worked for our firm for ten years and recently retired. She was our VP of administration and made sure the office ran properly. She contributed to our success in so many ways.
• Betty Spaulding is my wife and carries the title ceremonial title of EVP, though has no official role with the firm. But, she has served as a counselor to me over these 20 years and has been such a tremendous source of support and encouragement that she warrants acknowledgment, too.

We didn’t start out to be so focused on performance, but have no regret for this decision. We have been fortunate to meet and work with so many folks throughout the world. We consider our clients and colleagues to be our friends, and enjoy being with them. The Performance Measurement Forum has been an especially great group for us to be involved with. We thank our many clients for their support and the honor to serve them.

Our industry is an exciting one to be in. We really are passionate about performance measurement, and hope it shows.