"Do the right thing" (the one about saying thank you)

Back in 2015 FTS Group was generating roughly $50M revenues per annum and profit was flat lining. So to generate more than $50M in revenues and strong underlying profit in 6 months (January – June 2017) is a great achievement, one that takes a lot of effort and hard work.

So, as a way of saying thank you, we organised a series of celebrations throughout Australia. We didn’t plan anything fancy, just a nice dinner in a local restaurant in each city. It was an opportunity to spend time together, and to say a heartfelt thank you.

As a services business, our reputation is built on trust. Our customers place their trust in us each and every day. Every single person within the wider FTS Group community, we are each guardians of that reputation, and share a collective responsibility to do the right thing, build trust and help our business to flourish. So when our business is doing well, we know it is thanks to a sense of mutual accountability and collective leadership. For this I am profoundly grateful.

I really enjoyed spending time with people from different parts of FTS Group, people with different backgrounds and different skills, but all with one thing in common; a willingness to do the right thing, by our customers, our business, the wider community that serves us so well, each other and indeed themselves.

I was impressed by the stories I heard, all imbued with the same enthusiasm for doing the right thing. I was humbled when I learned about the hard work that takes place every day to deliver great outcomes for our customers, to build trust and to establish such a quality reputation in the market place.

Walking back to my hotel yesterday evening, having attended the latest of our celebration dinners in Melbourne, I remembered a David Whyte quote: "thankfulness finds its full measure in generosity of presence, both through participation and witness". To put that another way, sometimes doing the right thing simply means taking the time to say thank you.