Baseball During the Great Depression: Owners Cope with Adversity
Evergreen Journal by Tugboat Institute
Release Date: 12/04/2025
Creative Leadership
Evergreen Journal by Tugboat Institute
Rob Cordova is a thought leader, adjunct professor, and educator who transforms corporate learning into meaningful and inspiring experiences. Through his research on how our personal backgrounds shape our actions, Rob has developed a unique framework of reflective questions designed to help leaders step beyond their comfort zones. In this Tugboat Institute® talk, Rob challenges us to confront our natural tendency to avoid uncertainty and reminds us that in moments of ambiguity, creativity isn’t optional—it’s essential. By modeling the very vulnerability and courage he encourages in...
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Baseball During the Great Depression: Owners Cope with Adversity
Evergreen Journal by Tugboat Institute
David Surdam is a historical economist and professor at the University of Northern Iowa who studies how organizations adapt under extreme economic pressure. In this Tugboat Institute® Summit 2025 talk, he shares the story of Major League Baseball during the Great Depression, when team owners faced one of the most challenging economic periods in American history. Their adaptation strategies not only helped them survive, but even thrive, offering timely lessons on resilience, ingenuity, and the enduring power of cultural institutions during difficult times. Listen and be inspired to consider...
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On P.E. Redux
Evergreen Journal by Tugboat Institute
Over the last several years, private equity has continued its rapid expansion, reshaping the landscape of business ownership and investment. What was once limited to a small circle of institutional investors now reaches into 401k portfolios, making PE an increasingly dominant force in our economy. While this growth has fueled opportunity for many, it also poses new challenges for Evergreen® companies whose long-term, purpose-driven approach stands in sharp contrast to private equity’s short-term return model. Dave Whorton, Founder and CEO of Tugboat Institute®, revisits his 2019 talk,...
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From Vader to Evergreen: A CEO’s Journey to Enlightened Ownership
Evergreen Journal by Tugboat Institute
Mark Steele is the president and owner of Craftsmen Industries and a former turnaround specialist for private equity firms. Early in his career, he stepped into struggling businesses and made the tough calls others avoided. In this Tugboat Institute® talk, Mark shares how the opportunity to lead family-owned Craftsmen Industries sparked a profound shift in his career and business philosophy. He explores how leading the company, and ultimately becoming its owner, led him to embrace an approach to leadership and ownership grounded in Evergreen® values. Listen and be inspired by Mark’s...
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Profit with Purpose: Pricing Tactics for an Evergreen Business
Evergreen Journal by Tugboat Institute
Adam Echter is a partner at Simon-Kucher and a global expert in pricing strategy. A thought-leader and consultant, Adam brings decades of experience helping companies shape strategies that drive both profit and purpose. In this Tugboat Institute® Summit talk, Adam challenges the myth that purpose and profit are mutually exclusive. He lays out actionable pricing strategies that align with Evergreen® values, helping leaders create lasting value for customers while sustaining healthy margins. Through case studies and practical tools, Adam demonstrates that pricing, done well, is not just a...
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Bridging Generations: Documenting a Family Founder’s Vision
Evergreen Journal by Tugboat Institute
Tugboat Institute® member Ashli Desai is President of Larry Walker Associates, an environmental engineering firm focused on water quality management. After founder Larry Walker’s departure, the company remained family-owned but was led by non-family executives. This divide between ownership and leadership created challenges in communication and alignment among the family, leadership, and employees. In this Summit 2025 talk, Ashli tells her story of bridging leadership gaps, crafting a unified, shared vision for the future that brought all stakeholders together. Watch and be...
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The Only Constant in Life - and in Business - is Change
Evergreen Journal by Tugboat Institute
In business as in life, longevity often invites assumptions. When we hear about a company that has thrived for over a century, it’s easy to picture a large, slow-moving, and rigid organization. But surviving, and thriving, across generations requires quite the opposite: adaptability, agility, and a willingness to evolve. Jayne Millard embodies this mindset as the fourth-generation leader of Turtle & Hughes, a family-run electrical and industrial distributor. Rather than resting on tradition, Jayne and her team are embracing innovation by focusing on sustainability and partnering with...
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On Rules of Thumb
Evergreen Journal by Tugboat Institute
Business leaders often rely on rules of thumb, simple tools designed to guide decisions in complex environments. But when followed too rigidly, even the most trusted rules can create blind spots. In this Tugboat Institute® talk, Dave Whorton explores this tension and offers a fresh perspective on how Evergreen® leaders might think differently. Dave is the founder and CEO of Tugboat Institute and the author of Another Way: Building Companies That Last…and Last…and Last. Drawing on decades of experience, he challenges widely accepted misconceptions about growth and encourages Evergreen...
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Both/And Thinking: Harnessing the Positive Potential of Tensions
Evergreen Journal by Tugboat Institute
In business as in life, there are trade-offs. This is an accepted part of the business world as well, and is usually accepted as an unavoidable truth. This includes pairs like Profit and Purpose, or Profit and Paced Growth, which can sometimes appear to be at odds with one another. But what if this didn’t always have to be true? Marianne Lewis proposes a leadership strategy that can help resolve this tension. Marianne is Professor in the Carl H. Lindner College of Business at University of Cincinnati and co-author of Both/And Thinking: Embracing Creative Tensions to Solve Your Toughest...
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Why Employees Quit and How to Use Evergreen® Principles to Keep Them
Evergreen Journal by Tugboat Institute
The last five years have seen an ever-tightening talent pool and, therefore, increased competition for great employees. It seemed that it was a pandemic-related phenomenon at first, but demographics tell us that in fact, this is here to stay for many years. Coupled with this tight labor market, employees have become more particular about what they are looking for in their work, and they have become more apt to move on if their situation is not just right. The great resignation and quiet quitting, were, it turns out, just the start. In this era where it has become so challenging to hire great...
info_outlineDavid Surdam is a historical economist and professor at the University of Northern Iowa who studies how organizations adapt under extreme economic pressure.
In this Tugboat Institute® Summit 2025 talk, he shares the story of Major League Baseball during the Great Depression, when team owners faced one of the most challenging economic periods in American history. Their adaptation strategies not only helped them survive, but even thrive, offering timely lessons on resilience, ingenuity, and the enduring power of cultural institutions during difficult times.
Listen and be inspired to consider how your own organization might adapt in the face of a major economic downturn.