Premier Medical, Turner local Torch Award winners

By JIMMY SETTLE
The Leaf-Chronicle

Clarksville-based businesses receiving this year's Better Business Bureau awards recognizing outstanding marketplace ethics included Premier Medical Group, in the large-sized business category, and Jack B. Turner and Associates Inc. in the small business group.

"The Torch Awards for Ethics honors businesses in four Tennessee, and seven southern Kentucky counties, no matter how big or small, that make a demonstrable effort to promote ethical business practices," said Kathleen Calligan, president/CEO of the BBB of Middle Tennessee/Southern Kentucky.

"These recipients are a testament to doing business the right way. As a result of their commitment to business ethics, each have greater employee commitment, stronger customer loyalty and sustained long-term business success in their industry," Calligan said during Thursday night's reception for award nominees at Fort Campbell's Cole Park Commons.

Accepting the award for Premier Medical was Bob McCorkle, chief administrator, who said the focus of the company since its inception in 1995 has always been "quality care, and to do the right thing for our employees and our customers."

At Premier's first board meeting, one of its directors, Dr. Joel Bradley, said, "Premier should always take the high road in its relationships with others, with patients, with community partners, our employees and even our competitors."

As a health care service provider, Premier has two primary ethical concerns, McCorkle said -- business ethics and bioethics, the latter involving making clinical decisions that best serve the patients' interests.

For Jack B. Turner and Associates, the awards just keep on coming. Jack B. Turner, president, was most recently honored by the College of Business at Middle Tennessee State University for his professional and civic achievements, and this week, as a Torch Award winner, he gave the credit to his staff of insurance and financial professionals.

"There are awards that you can earn during your career that are personal awards, but I consider this to be an award that's in recognition of all of the wonderful people in our company.

"I will always be appreciative for everything they've ever done," Turner said.

He also cites the Jack B. Turner and Associates Commitment to Integrity statement which says, "We believe that trust is the foundation of all successful relationships and we pride ourselves on being relationship-oriented."

Four-year program

This marks the fourth year the Tenn-Tucky BBB office has handed out the Torch Awards for Ethics. The independent panel of judges sifted through 83 business nominations from the service area resulting in 17 semi-finalists and nine finalists in four employee-sized categories.

In the large-sized business category (companies with 101 to 1,000 employees), Premier Medical's stiffest competition came from U.S. Bank.

Jack B. Turner and Associates was up against finalist Carlos Lewis and Sons Housemovers in the small business category (11 to 25 employees), as well as other semi-finalists Clarksville RV Supercenter, First Command Financial Planning, and Raben Tire Co.

Winning the medium-sized business category (26 to 100 employees) was Sisk Auto Mall of Hopkinsville, Ky., which was up against Legends Bank.

And in the very small-sized business category (one to 10 employees), Sanders Funeral Home of Russellville, Ky., was the winner, in a grouping that also included semi-finalists AAMCO Transmissions, Action Air, Auto Insurance Network, Bob Hammerstein's Shelter Insurance, Computer Wizards, Dealers' Financial Services M.I.L.E.S., and Edward Jones Investments.

Also honored Thursday was Leslie Baughn, Tenn-Tucky BBB branch manager, who was presented the Fort Campbell Commander's Award courtesy of Maj. Gen. David H. Petraeus, recognizing her service to area soldiers and their families.

Torch Award presenters were last year's winners in each category -- Gary Davis of American National Insurance in the very small category, Dunning Cheatham of Cheatham and Co. in the small business group, Breck Cayce of Cayce Mill Supply in the medium-sized category, and Bob Gaydos of Trane in the large business category.

Judges for the 2003 Torch Awards included an independent panel of business ethics experts.

They were Edna Hughes, 2003 president of the Russellville-Logan County, Ky., Chamber of Commerce; Dr. Linda Rudolph, senior policy analyst, Bureau of Business and Economic Research, University of Memphis; Col. William Deneke, staff judge advocate, 101st Airborne Division and Fort Campbell; Paul Fourshee, Fourshee Inc. and 2001 Torch Award recipient; and Niesha Wolfe, a certified public accountant and immediate past president of the Clarksville Area Chamber of Commerce.

Setting standard

Ed Rufo -- chairman of the Tenn-Tucky BBB branch advisory board and recent winner of the 2003 BBB of Middle Tennessee Ambassador Award -- said the local BBB has set a national standard with the local awards.

"Although this highly well-known program has been successful nationally, we were the first BBB organization to bring this event to a branch level," Rufo said.

"In a sense, we were probably behaving like pathfinders, those World War II airborne soldiers who jumped first and lit up the way for others to follow. The only thing we knew for sure is that a belief in business ethics is as good as the power of the North Star to guide us to where we want to be and want others to follow.

"Well -- at least in my humble opinion -- we are now on solid ground ... right where we hoped we would be," he said.

Rufo also used the opportunity to formally announce that the mid-state BBB has voted to purchase a building at the corner of Third and Main streets in downtown Clarksville to be the permanent Tenn-Tucky branch offices.

Serving as master of ceremonies was Dr. E. Mac Edington, senior partner of the former Torch Award-winning Clarksville Dental Center, who introduced keynote speaker S. Truett Cathy, founder and chairman of Chick-Fil-A restaurants.

Cathy, now 82, said part of the secret of his restaurant chain's success is investing in quality people to serve as store owners/operators.

Borrowing extensively from his own Biblical studies, he said, "We, as business people, can all be honest and truthful, and still be successful.

"It's amazing what you can accomplish when you're fully committed to something.

"Just treat your customers like they're the most important people in the world," Cathy said.

So intense are his beliefs that he has a policy of closing all Chick-Fil-A stores on Sundays "to emphasize the importance of family" and "to observe the Lord's day."

Recently testifying before a U.S. Senate committee, he told the politicians, "I see no conflict between Biblical principles and good business practices."

Jimmy Settle covers business and can be reached at 245-0752, or at jimmysettle@theleafchronicle.com.

Originally published in the Leaf Chronicle, Saturday, November 22, 2003