Cornejo & Sons September 2018

Cornejo & Sons September 2018

a Summit Materials company

www.cornejocorp.com 316-522-5100

SEPT 2018

CONTINUING A LEGACY

This concept was brought home to me when I participated in Advance Kansas. Our focus was diversity and inclusion and the strengths that these qualities bring to a company. I learned so much about myself and about the broader issues that are going on in the world. The issues we face locally are issues that every city, state, and country deals with. It’s easy for people to recruit for what they know, for people like them. But it’s important to have team members with alternate viewpoints, other sets of eyes with different experiences and backgrounds. In studies of group dynamics, the groups who have nothing in common — who are more diverse — score much higher than groups who are very similar. Connecting with and bolstering our community is part of the Cornejo & Sons mission. Our President, Georges, puts this into practice every day. He was the one who encouraged me to join Advance Kansas. It’s one of the organizations that’s leading the Stepping Up and Honing My Strengths for the Team

of people here, and a lot of us come from a competitive sports background. In our commercial construction group, howwe do as a team relates to howwe’re supporting each other as individuals. Everyone has strengths, and being a leader is about recognizing the strengths of our individual teammembers and helping them use those strengths to their advantage. As a team, you have to be ready to adjust and be flexible to the market. We’ve done a good job of that based on the leadership within our company. We’re pushed to challenge ourselves and not be stagnant. We’re also lucky to have a very supportive mother company in Summit that allows us to innovate and implement new technology. It’s the same way within the bigger company — we work together as team in a vertically integrated company. Like any team, you don’t want all the players to have the same strengths — you want players who excel at layups, others who will always get the rebound and shoot, others who get every free throw. You want a diverse group of talented individuals. That’s what makes you successful as a team.

Every day, I strive to continue the legacy that my supervisor started in the commercial paving industry within the framework Cornejo & Sons established. We have a list of priorities that are always top of mind. To be a leader in this industry, providing excellent customer service is at the top of that list. Safety is always a paramount priority, as is quality control and productivity. These are the values that we’ve instilled in the company since the beginning. Our drive to succeed never comes at the cost of these values. My supervisor had been with our company and in the industry for over 40 years, and when he retired, he left big shoes to fill, and I was promoted into his role. It was a blessing, of course, but it also came with a daunting question: How do you continue the legacy of someone with so much knowledge and experience? Having a strong mission and set of values helps make stepping into a new role easier — I knowwhat we stand for at Cornejo & Sons, and it’s what guides each decision I make. Mymanagement style correlates to the team atmosphere that I was surrounded bywhile playing baseball. We have a quality group

way in boosting our local economy and market. We’re looking to change the dynamics of the world we’re living in, and that starts locally, right here, with our company. –Blake Blasi

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CORNEJO’S KIDS:

Giving Back to the Community’s Youth

One thing that Cornejo strives to do is to give back to the community that has supported them from the very beginning. Over the past five years, Cornejo has worked to form a positive relationship with Anderson Elementary, a school located near the office. “I feel like we are such an integral part of this neighborhood — it’s our neighborhood,” says Randy Roths, Cornejo’s community outreach director. “Much of what we do impacts the neighborhood.”

Roths, along with the rest of Cornejo, recognized that there was a need to be filled in the community and took the opportunity to do so.

“We drive by that neighborhood every day, not looking to the left and not seeing the need that is just outside our doorsteps,” says Roths.

Many of the children attending Anderson are from lower-class families who have difficulty providing the necessary supplies their students need for school. That is where Cornejo steps in. Each year, the company organizes a school supply drive, collecting everything from pencils and crayons to backpacks and cash donations. “We saw a desperate need in our neighborhood, and we were able to take care of it,” Roths says. “There is only so much that teachers can do to help their students. They can’t do it all.” This year, Cornejo partnered with the Mending Place in South City, a local church, in addition to tying the drive with Bring Your Kid to Work Day to help bolster donation levels. “It was kind of refreshing to tie another group into it this year. They had new and fresh ideas, which inspired me to do better,” Roths says. Cornejo’s involvement at Anderson goes beyond supplying classrooms at the beginning of each school year. The company also does a bike giveaway at the end of each semester to a student with perfect attendance.

“Attendance is a big problem at Anderson,” Roths says. “The principal feels our program helps motivate kids to come to school.”

Additionally, in partnership with Lubrication Engineers and United Way of the Plains, Cornejo has sent volunteers to Anderson as part of the Read to Succeed program for at-risk third grade students. According to United Way, third grade is a pivotal year in determining the reading performance of children. “When we have students who are not reading at grade level by third grade, the >Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4

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