A Pioneer in business ethics

By CHARLES W. JOHNSON / News Editor for the Southern Standard

Pioneer Building Supply was recently chosen as one of three finalists for the Better Business Bureau 2004 Torch Award for marketplace ethics. Pictured are Pioneer’s Gordon McGee Jr. and Amie Hodges. (Charles W. Johnson photo)

McMinnville’s Pioneer Building Supply has been chosen as a finalist in the medium-size business category for the prestigious 2004 Torch Award for marketplace ethics presented by the Murfreesboro Area Better Business Bureau.

This is the fifth year the Murfreesboro BBB office has held the Torch Awards. There were 57 nominations from the service area resulting in 21 semi-finalists and 12 finalists in three employee-size categories.

In a written statement, Gov. Phil Bredesen said, “It is quite the honor to receive a Better Business Bureau Torch Award. Only those who have demonstrated the highest integrity and professional ethics are considered for such recognition.”

Local Chamber of Commerce president Lea Chrisawn says the award is quite an accolade.

“This is the highest honor that the Better Business Bureau awards each year,” Chrisawn said. “Last year River Park won the award in the large category, and this year Pioneer was selected as a finalist in the medium-size category which includes businesses with 25 to 50 employees.”

Either an employee or a customer can nominate a business which is then subjected to a questionnaire and an extensive selection process where a non-partisan panel of five judges from around the region investigates information about the nominees.

Pioneer’s Amie Hodges and Gordon McGee Jr., the children of the company’s founder, Gordon McGee Sr. and wife Clara, said they were honored to have been picked as a finalist.

Amie said she and Gordon Jr., who now manage the family business, just try to follow the beliefs set out by her father when he started the business in 1975.

“Just build your business honestly,” Hodges said, “and treat your customers fairly. We’re just carrying on that tradition.”

The company’s motto is also an indication of their philosophy of business.

“Good business makes good friends,” Hodges said. “Treat people like you want to be treated.”

“It speaks volumes about how business is done there,” Chrisawn added.

Amie and Gordon Jr. say they got their views from their parents.

Said Gordon Jr., “One of the things dad has always taught us, and this is one of his favorite quotes, ‘A man is only as good as his word.’ And we’ve based just about everything we do, everything from our friendships to the things that we do in business, we always do what we say and say what we do.”

Both Amie and Gordon Jr. say becoming a finalist is an acknowledgment of the ethical values they practice in business.

“It makes you feel that all the things that mom and dad taught us have come through and we’ve been recognized for it,” Amie said.