Year in Review – 2022

Reflections on a Milestone Year

As 2022 comes to a close, we want to take time to reflect on the developments, achievements, and opportunities that Marsden experienced over the past twelve months. This past year, Marsden celebrated its 70^th anniversary. This milestone event inspired our leadership to reflect on the rich legacy of our founder, Skip Marsden. Skip built his company by focusing on relationships, customer service, and an unparalleled commitment to quality. Marsden’s longevity is a testament to Skip’s vision and priorities. As part of our celebration of 70 years in business, Marsden leadership took the time to think about our history as an organization and consider how we can position ourselves for success over the next 70 years. 

Defining Marsden’s Cultural Foundations

One of the key aspects of defining Marsden’s culture and identity for the future came in the release of our new corporate core values this year. The core values resulted from a reflection on our historical legacy and a collaborative effort to define and shape who we want to be in the future. These core values will provide Marsden with a foundational philosophy as we move forward. They will align our priorities and corporate beliefs, providing the guiding principles for everything we do:

• We are relationship builders: Relationships drive everything we do, and we approach each relationship with empathy and integrity. We get to know and value the needs, motivations, goals, and priorities of everyone we work with, whether it’s clients, associates, stakeholders, community partners, or vendors.
• We are constant advancers: We strive for growth in every area of our business. We aim to operate profitably so that we can continue developing, expanding, and taking on new challenges. As we grow our business to better serve our clients, we encourage our associates to grow in their careers and help them to develop professionally and personally.
• We are solution seekers: When we see a problem or a need, we find the solution. We’re always searching for new ways to solve problems for our customers, our industry, and our community. This has led to expanding our service lines, implementing new technologies, deploying new products, and forming key partnerships.
• We are positive influencers: We are intentional about having a positive impact through our work. We create cleaner, safer, and healthier workplaces; we make our client’s jobs easier; we invest in an inclusive workplace and associate well-being; and we donate 10% of pre-tax profits to help support our community.

Strategic Developments for the Future

Celebrating our 70 years of success in 2022 helped ground our leadership team as we built our strategic plans for the next few years:

• Infrastructure investments: We made several infrastructure changes this past year to ensure we can sustain our growth for the future. These include organizational alignments and database improvements, which will help us to drive greater efficiency in our operations.
• LEGS: Throughout 2022, we continued to execute on the tenants of our LEGS strategy: Leadership, Engagement, Growth, and Safety. Moving into 2023, our Engagement pillar is going to be a key strategic focus, both with our frontline employees and our customers.
• Workforce initiatives: Our associates are critical to our future growth and we are investing in key engagement programs throughout the company:
  • Leadership Development: Since 2019, Marsden has been providing leadership development programs to prepare and attract leaders and support organizational growth and improve engagement.
  • DEI: In 2021, we launched a corporate DEI program to support Marsden’s goal of being an inclusive and empowering workplace for all our associates.
  • Career Pathing: In 2022, we began work on a career pathing program that will become an enterprise-wide model for career advancement. This program, known as STEPS, includes training, tools, and resources to help our associates make vertical and lateral moves within the organization. Our goal is to ensure our associates are aware of all the opportunities that exist at Marsden and to have a program that enables employees to prepare for and move into new positions. This will enhance our promote-from-within capabilities and provide access and development for associates to pursue different possible career paths at Marsden.

Acquisitions To Drive Continued Expansion and Growth

Acquisitions are an important part of Marsden’s growth strategy and our local operating structure. We have acquired 49 companies in the past 50 years, adding three new companies to the Marsden enterprise in 2022.

• Hudson Security: This acquisition supports our growth in our security service line and increased capacity within our team of security experts while also expanding our security operations into Missouri.
• Signature Mechanical: This acquisition supports our commercial HVAC and mechanical service line by strengthening our commercial plumbing capabilities and our operations in the Minnesota market.
• Alpha & Omega: This acquisition supports our janitorial operations in Ohio and because Alpha and Omega specializes in the higher education market, their expertise will enhance Marsden’s existing experience in this market segment.

Building on the Foundation for the Next 70 Years

Throughout the year, Marsden associates developed creative new initiatives, shared innovative ideas, and demonstrated a passion for making Marsden better every day. We’ve made exciting progress on key programs and launched new initiatives to position us for the future. Our new programs, infrastructure investments, and strategic plans will set us up for continued achievements. Thank you to everyone who has contributed to Marsden’s success over the past 70 years – we wouldn’t be here without you, and we’re excited about what we can continue to accomplish together.