This CEO is rock-steady

If you’re in a meeting with Kevin Cushing and he tosses a rock in your direction, don’t duck.

He’s not trying to hurt you. He just wants to hear your ideas.

Cushing, president and chief executive officer of Salt Lake-based AlphaGraphics Inc., keeps a small, oval rock featuring a painted Kokopelli on the table in his office, and he takes rocks with him when he’s visiting the company’s approximately 270 franchise owners.

He picked up the tradition at one of his first jobs. When he and colleagues convened a meeting, they would pass a rock around. The person with the rock had the floor, Cushing said, ensuring that even quieter folks would be heard.

That’s important, he said, because no one — not even the CEO of a company — is all-knowing.

"One of my greatest strengths is I know that I don’t know (everything)," Cushing said.

By Greg Kratz
Deseret Morning News

Full Story: http://deseretnews.com/dn/view/0,1249,600121049,00.html

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AlphaGraphics loves Utah, but many firms still leery of the state

By Greg Kratz
Deseret Morning News

Utah has lost its share of corporate headquarters in recent years.

Iomega moved from Roy to San Diego. Novell left Provo for the Boston area. And those are just two prominent examples that spring readily to mind.

But Utah leaders can point to at least one recent success. AlphaGraphics, which is celebrating its 35th anniversary this year, moved its headquarters from Tucson, Ariz., to Salt Lake City in 2001.

However, even that move was not without controversy. Michael B. Witte, who was chairman and chief executive officer of AlphaGraphics at the time, said in August 2001 that some of the company’s Tucson staff would not come to Utah because the state is "a tough sell."

"I lost lots of good people I was sure would move on the issue of Utah," he said then. "But believe me, if you don’t live here and you’re looking in from the outside, otherwise very educated, liberal, open-minded people still look at the Utah environment and think that you guys are from Mars."

Full Story: http://deseretnews.com/dn/view/0,1249,600121050,00.html