Setpoint Systems had been around since 1992.  Over that time the organization has done many things.  We have seen many changes.  The business has always endured through good times and tough times.  Today Setpoint is led by Brad Angus the companies’ 5th CEO.  The companies’ 1st CEO was one of the co-founders, Joe VanDenBerghe.  Joe VanDenBerghe founded Setpoint Systems with Joe Cornwell, two talented engineers.  Under their leadership the company thrived.

This month the company hit a major milestone when Joe VanDenBerghe was bought out by a group of current employees.  For the past two years the two Joe’s were not involved in the day-to-day operations of the business and only served as board members.  The two Joe’s now are involved in the amusement park ride business primarily designing and building roller coasters.  That business is doing well and is a good fit for the two crazy engineers.

With this buyout a new chapter is beginning at Setpoint Systems.  For the first time a large group of company employees are now owners of the company.  The companies’ 1st CEO & co-founder is no longer involved.  These changes are going to continue to create a new culture that our fearless leader Brad Angus started two and a half years ago when he arrived on the scene.

Setpoint has always been an open book company.  In other words we share our numbers with our employees on a weekly basis.  We always felt that this made employees feel like they had a vested interest in the company.  I always said the employees have psychic ownership, even though they did not own stock they act like it because they see the numbers and want the company to perform well. 

Now with many employees really owning stock we are going to see how things go with actual ownership rather than psychic ownership.  I think this is an exciting transition for Setpoint Systems and a natural outcome of being open book.  As a management team, we have talked about taking this step for years and now it is a reality. 

We’ll talk more about how this change affects the business in future blogs….Stay tuned.