Text Book Example of What it Means to “Pivot”
100-Year-old Document Storage Company – A Text Book Example of What it Means to Pivot
There are few US companies that have roots going back over 100 years. According to Crain’s Business, for those companies that are part of such an elite group, they most likely share three key factors explaining their successful succession:
- Strong corporate mission, culture,
- Strength through change management, and
- Employees feel valued.
RhinoDox, a family owned and operated business, was established as a document storage business in 1913. Their 105-year evolution is a text book example of “pivoting” at exactly the right time and the right place — long before “pivoting” became an entrepreneurial buzz word. Today, the baton has been passed to fourth generation grandson, Justin Ulman. Ulman seems to have inherited an innate ability of knowing that 2016 was the right time to “pivot” yet again – engineering a technological solution that would not only revolutionize “document management”, but also serve as an enterprise grade search engine for content and its “lifecycle.”
CultureFit had a chance to Interview Justin Ulman, to gain an insider’s perspective of how this family run operation has survived over 100 years. Considering most companies can’t survive 5 years from inception, it was an enlightening opportunity to gain a first-hand perspective of how the company, its products and services, have evolved by leveraging all 3 key succession factors.
