New and Improved Company Values: An Essential Driver of Bestway’s Steady Pace Forward

By Jay Devers

It’s one thing for a leader to have company values in his mind. It’s another thing to make them both visible and active – and it’s astonishing how values can impact an organization when you do the latter.

Coming in fresh from Corporate America, I was quick to establish a mission statement, vision statement and values I felt represented who we were and where we were going. Humbly speaking with the benefit of hindsight, they actually fit remarkably well given what was to come in the next decade plus. In setting policy and leading the team day-to-day, I felt like I always tried to lead with those values in mind.

But that’s the only place they really lived. In my mind. Yes, they were in the handbook and on a single onboarding slide but they really only existed in that form, and in my mind.

In 2025, when we selected and began adopting the Entrepreneurial Operating System, one element of the process was to revise – as a team – the company values.

While the new ones were not far afield from my original attempt, they were tied to real people, behaviors and real results that were easier for the team to embrace. Most critically, they were also built by our emerging leaders, who are invested in them.

In case you’ve not seen our newest edition of values, here is what they are:

1. People First. We care for each other and for our customers, and we do whatever it takes to look out for each other and for them.
2. Be Flexible. When others stop, we get started. It’s great to have a plan – and we always do – but this is logistics, and you have to be ready to make adjustments at any moment. We are.
3. Strive for More. Every day is an opportunity to improve. We love the process of becoming better versions of ourselves, and we love what that means for our customers.
4. Have Fun Being Your Best. Doing well and helping others is a joyful experience at Bestway. We wish everyone had such a good time doing this.

These most certainly reflect where Bestway is today, and where we want to be going forward. It also reflects more of a consensus of those involved in the EOS process. We expect the crew to live these values, and we embrace and encourage the teaching of them.

But what has really made these values come to life for us is that we’ve made them both visible and active in our day-to-day operations.

Our people love them because they provide an excellent point of guidance for how they handle their jobs. And our customers love them because they see these values reflected in how we deal with them – and in the results they get.

It’s also had the effect of sharpening our team – not only in terms of how we do things, but also in terms of who is on the team. As much as Bestway’s present leadership loves and embraces these values, we know they’re not for everyone. Once it became clear that we not only were adopting these but were going to make them our guiding lights every day, some team members decided Bestway was no longer for them. The EOS process very accurately predicted this outcome, so we were prepared for it.

That is OK for them and it’s OK with us. Working here is not a life sentence, and those who think they would fit in somewhere else are making the right choice by pursuing that option. It’s given us a more united, harmonious and high-performing team as a result. Our customers see that and I hear from them about it often, which is a wonderful feeling.

Recently we had an interesting seven-day period. A long-time team member, after 14 years of steady service with us, decided to retire. We celebrated this team member with all the honor and love you would expect for someone as beloved and valued as she was. The entire team joined in the occasion. That same week, we hired a young person of only 19 years old – full of promise, certainly needing training and guidance as we all do, but representing exactly the type of individual we knew fit our values.

We want people like this on our squad, so it was an easy decision to invest in the training that would help lead to a great professional career at Bestway.

It was the cycle of life in full view, right here amongst our team members. And it all came back to those values.

Our industry right now is experiencing a lot of swings and convulsions. I understand companies within the industry are doing the best they can, some thriving and others not.    

But Bestway is on a steady pace, and our adherence to these company values is one of the primary reasons for that. There’s a lot to be said for embracing great ideals, making them visible and keeping your commitment to living them.

It’s making a big difference for us every day.