Audience: employees of the company
Message: We are achieving, thanks to you.
Tone: informal
Timing: 2-3 minutes

Today, we have just shipped the one-millionth (product) out our front door. It’s great to be CEO of an organization that cares about quality and productivity. We’ve set in place policies that produce quality, and you’ve contributed the craftsmanship and the commitment to productivity.

You’ve heard it said that the optimist sees a glass that is half full. The pessimist sees one that is half empty. Comedian George Carlin says that he sees a glass that’s twice the size it needs to be. Your own attitudes are a reflection of how you see life in general and how you see your job specifically. I think we have a lot of George Carlin clones around here. You look at designs or procedures that are inappropriate for the tasks and then make the necessary corrections. That’s what you’ve become known for—an eye for detail, improvement, and innovation.

Steel magnate Charles Schwab concluded, “All successful employers are stalking men who will do the unusual, men who think, men who attract attention by performing more than is expected of them.” Lee Iacocca has agreed:

“The kind of people I look for to fill top management spots,” he says, “are the eager beavers, the mavericks. These are the guys who try to do more than they’re expected to do—they always reach.”

We here at (corporation) have both kinds of employees—the support people who follow well and who daily do more than is expected of them and the “eager beaver” executives who lead the way in new directions.

You here at this (city) plant have become team players in the best sense. That is, your commitment to pull together has helped you avoid the vast wasteland of mediocrity. Instead, your team spirit has molded you into “cream of the crop” employees, in a group that can act as a role model to others in our industry we’ve left far behind.

Through training, communication, cooperation, and commitment, you’ve turned an assembly line into a customer’s line—a line of workers who think like customers think and who work like customers would work if they were building their own products. You demonstrate an understanding of quality, waste-reduction, and increased efficiency. In short, you understand profit and you are the real door to our future.

I’m proud to stand before you on this historic day for our company. Keep up the good work. Together we are going to dominate the next decade.