STRATUS BUILDING SOLUTIONS JOINS IFA TO ANNOUNCE VETERAN HIRING COMMITMENTS
Veteran franchise small business ownership to be highlighted at events throughout the country
December 21, 2011, St. Louis, MO
Stratus Building Solutions is a proud member of the International Franchise Association (IFA) and excited to share in the announcement of “Operation Enduring Opportunity,” which is a campaign to hire and recruit 75,000 veterans and 5,000 wounded warriors by 2012. Michelle Obama, First Lady of the United States of America, made the November announcement as part of the White House Joining Forces Initiative and is the largest veteran hiring commitment yet.
“As tens of thousands of service men and women return from deployment in Iraq, Afghanistan and Southwest Asia, expanded opportunities are needed to ensure that veterans and their families are able to transition into the civilian economy. With its rapid training opportunities, defined structure and systems, and need for operational excellence, franchising provides an ideal structure to enable returning veterans to become leaders of and productive participants in the U.S. economy,” said IFA President & CEO Steve Caldeira. “We encourage all franchise businesses, including franchisors and franchisees, to answer the call to offer jobs and career opportunities to veterans, wounded warriors and their families. Not only is this critical for the economic and social stability of veterans and their families, but it is an important component of the U.S. economic recovery.”
Stratus Building Solutions, also in the IFA’s VetFran, agrees that veterans have a proven track record of success in franchising. According to Jim Van Dyke, the Stratus Master Franchise Owner of Colorado Springs, a five year assignment in Hawaii partnered him with a commander named Lt. Col. Gene Leupp who taught him lessons that he still recalls when operating his business today. Jim says, “I exercised a style of management of leading by example, and treating my staff as I would like to be treated. I found that style to be most effective in that it fostered tremendous loyalty and a desire to ‘go the extra mile.’ My staff members felt compelled to do great work because they want to, not because they feel they had to.”
