Glen Raven is a successful textile manufacturing company experiencing international success. Glen Raven has over 2700 employees located all around the world. The company sells to 120 different countries. Glen Raven has plants in China, Brazil, India, and three in France. John Q. Gant founded Glen Raven in 1880. The company has not only remained private since its founding, but it has also remained under leadership by the Gant family. However, over the next four years, Mr. Gant will begin to hand over leadership to a member of the company not in his family.
Our meeting started off in the dyeing and finishing plant. Our first speaker outlined the company and its goals. Glen Raven’s vision is “Let Endless Possibilities Begin.” When the company was trying to decide on a vision, each employee was asked to fill in the statement, “Let (blank) begin.” The mission of Glen Raven is to enhance life for global customers with the world’s most innovative fabric-based, market-driven solutions. Our speaker talked about a couple of values held dear to the company. The first is to have engaged associates (enthusiastic, focused, creative, etc.). The next value is to embrace change. This means that it is important to keep up with evolving society. Glen Raven is also focused on making a profit. This profit is not kept selfishly between few, but rather pumped back into the company to stimulate further success. Another important value for the company is to have delighted customers. If customers are happy, they will continue to use Glen Raven over other similar companies. Glen Raven is also focused on meeting the highest standards of ethics, safety, environmental protection, lawfulness, and respect to one another. Finally, it is important that Glen Raven has confident shareholders that stimulate success. Our next speaker was Leo Lambert’s daughter, a graduate of Elon University. She talked to us about the marketing aspect of the company. She reminded us that marketing is simply telling a story. It is important to start with an audience, talk to that audience, and develop a marketing message based on the results. Like LabCorp, Glen Raven is a company with a lot of moving parts.
We then toured the dyeing and finishing plant. I was blown away by the size and efficiency of the machines. Each machine had a different job, and they worked together like an assembly. It was important that we wear earplugs to prevent damage to our hearing. After our tour, we went into a nicer building across the street. We were introduced to the concept room, where much of the creative thinking of Glen Raven is done. At the time of our visit, we were fortunate enough to see a cool light exhibit entitled “Illuminate.”
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