The "secret sauce" that makes Boyne City special

Randy Flinn

The following are remarks made by Randy Flinn, the owner of KorthaseFlinn Insurance and Financial Services, to a crowd of nearly 300 people at the Boyne Chamber Annual Meeting on Jan. 16, 2014:

It is an honor to stand before you and welcome you to the Boyne Area Chamber of Commerce Annual Meeting. Tonight represents the 11th year in which I have had the privilege to act as the lead sponsor of what is truly my favorite event of this kind each year.

As the evening unfolds we will recognize countless examples of individuals and organizations that are making a positive difference in Boyne City. We will hear about entrepreneurs, volunteers, businesses, visionaries, non-profits, investors, worker bees, and others. There will be much to applaud and much for which to give thanks. We will all feel good tonight, there is no doubt.

However, as we listen to these stories, I would submit that the acts of individuals and businesses are but one ingredient of the recipe that makes Boyne City what it is. There are great businesses in every city. There are volunteers and entrepreneurs hard at work in every city. There are investors, non-profits, and worker bees in every city.

I believe that the primary ingredient to the “secret sauce” that makes Boyne City special is the shared mission and commitment of our stakeholders, including local governments, schools, businesses, non-profits, and individuals. The City of Boyne City Mission Statement reads as follows: “The people of Boyne City are the reason we are here. We are therefore committed to working with the community so that everyone can enjoy the benefits of living and working in Boyne City.”

While this is the stated mission of our City Government, it is clearly the underlying philosophy of all those in this room and many others in our community. And through this belief in a greater purpose than simply our own self-interests, we all benefit and our community thrives.

In a way, we are all bit players in a community that includes thousands of individuals and hundreds of organizations. Some of our roles may be larger than others, but we are all bit players. But as bit players sharing an underlying philosophy and commitment, we become a TEAM. We become a group of people:

1. Operating with a high degree of interdependence.
2. Sharing authority and responsibility.
3. Feeling accountable for the collective performance, and
4. Working toward a common goal and shared rewards.

“A team becomes more than just a collection of people when a strong sense of mutual commitment creates synergy, thus generating performance greater than the sum of the performances of its individual members.” The stakeholders of Boyne City are truly a team…

So as we appreciate and applaud the success stories that will be told tonight, we should all remember that isolated stories like these happen everywhere. It is our shared mission and commitment to our community that makes Boyne City special, and makes the kinds of successes that we recognize tonight not just possible, but truly commonplace.

Thank you for coming tonight and for your commitment to Boyne City. Have fun and be safe!