July 1, 2025 • 44 mins
Hank and Mark Danos discuss how their family business has maintained its core values throughout 78 years of growth, sharing powerful stories that illustrate the company's commitment to people, generosity, and purpose-driven leadership. They explore how the DNA of Danos—from its founders' sacrifice and problem-solving approach to its modern philanthropic initiatives—has shaped a sustainable business model that balances profit with community impact.
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Episode Transcript
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Samantha (00:00):
Good morning, everyone.
Thank you for joining us today.
I'm Samantha McGee with theDanos Marketing Team, and today
we've got owner Hank Danos, whois chairman of the board, and
owner Mark Danos, who is CEO ofDanos Family Investments.
Did I get that right?
You got it.
Go t it.
Good.
So today we're going to talkabout the DNA of Danos and what
makes up Danos, what makes itdifferent, and what makes it
(00:20):
truly special.
And I guess when I say the DNAof Danos, what does that look
like to you?
I'll start with you, Mr.
Hank.
Hank (00:27):
Yeah.
Well, obviously we're a littleprejudiced.
We think we're special.
But when I think about DNA, Ithink about, from a human
standpoint, it's molecular,genetic, and it goes back
generations.
And we can trace who we are, orscientists can trace who we
(00:52):
are, by looking at our DNA.
So if you apply that to acompany, it may not be as
scientific, but the way I thinkabout it, when I think about DNA
of Danos, I think about theearly origins, the founders of
our company, the things thatthey valued, the things that
(01:13):
were important to them, thethings that drove them to start
a company.
And when that is firmlyentrenched in the founders, the
early, the beginners of thecompany, in our case, of the
company, it tends to followgenerations of leadership,
(01:34):
ownership, management.
So, for example, I think aboutthe early days when our company
was just a few years old when Iwas barely a toddler, for
instance, and I looked out awindow one day and I saw my dad
sitting walking out the doorwith a suitcase, getting in the
(01:55):
car and driving off.
So, you know, naturally, as akid, I ran to the door and asked
my mother, where is he going?
What's happening?
You know, my dad was leaving.
And she said, well, he's goingto work on the boat.
And I said, well, how long ishe going to be gone?
She says he's going to be goneseven days because he and his
co-founder, my uncle, had a boatand they worked together.
(02:17):
seven days on seven days off ofthe boat so i got upset my
dad's gone for seven days and mymother sat me down and she says
okay your dad is building abusiness and part of building a
business means we work hardsometimes we make sacrifices
sometimes we have to leave homeand so on so that planted a seed
(02:41):
i didn't say okay i connectedall the dots but I think about
our DNA of sacrifice, of workinghard, of being ambitious.
These two men who started thecompany were Cajun men.
They weren't formally educated.
They lived in a rural area.
And they made a decision,rather than going to work in the
fishing industry, which is whattheir background was, they
(03:02):
decided they wanted to start abusiness.
So something was driving them.
So part of our DNA was that.
And then I think forward to...
you know, I don't know if itwas a few months or a few years,
probably not a few years, but ashort time after that, my dad
was home and he was leaving.
(03:23):
And again, I asked my mother, Isaid, where's he going?
She said, he's going to work.
And I said, well, I thought myuncle was on the boat and he was
off.
And my mother again said, itdoesn't work that way.
When you're building abusiness, he's got to call on
customers.
He's got to look for jobs, andhe's got to do things.
So, you know, those seeds wereplanted early on that the DNA of
(03:47):
our company was sacrifice, hardwork, being different in a
sense, being gone sometimes.
And, you know, I think thatjust continued to follow us for
the generations that...
(04:08):
continue to follow.
I think one more example thatI'll talk about our DNA, I
guess, if you will, is Danos wasa boat company in the early
days, and there wereopportunities.
Eventually, we became a laborsupplier providing labor
(04:31):
offshore.
And I didn't witness this, butthis was a story that my dad was
happy to share with with me, Ieither asked him, or let's say I
asked him, how did we ever goto work offshore and evolve into
the labor business?
And there was somethinginteresting that he said.
One day, he was calling on GolfAll, our primary customer, in
(04:59):
Cut-Off, at their work site, andhe was walking back to his car,
and All of a sudden the windowopened and somebody yelled out
of the window, Alan, who's myfather's name, said, can I talk
to you for a minute?
And the guy who called him wasVic Jones.
I remember that name well.
He was the manager, the boss,the guy who managed all of Gulf
(05:24):
Oil's activity in Louisiana.
It wasn't a substantial amountof activity.
Anyway, my dad walked in andVic Jones says, Alan, we have
this offshore platform in SouthMarsh Island and we're having
trouble finding people who canhelp us produce the oil.
And he said, can you help us?
(05:46):
And my dad obviously said,well, yeah, what do you need?
He says, well, you know,there's a lot of mechanical
stuff offshore.
People, they're having troublefixing it.
They have to live offshore andthey're having trouble adjusting
to the lifestyle.
(06:07):
And he named a few things.
And as my dad related the storyto me sometimes later, he says,
as I thought about that, hesaid, I thought, wow.
He says, my people, our people,the people I live and work with
are fishermen.
And my mother's people, hesays, your mama's people are
(06:29):
farmers.
He says, these people, whensomething breaks, they have to
fix it.
He said, we don't callmechanics.
We fix things.
And he says, if they're out inthe middle of the field or in a
bay fishing, something likethat, and the weather gets bad,
we work in bad weather.
We work in tough conditions.
So essentially, he said, Istarted to recruit the guys that
(06:56):
I worked with, the guys that Iknew, the guys that would be
problem solvers.
Again, that was just an exampleof the DNA.
What built Danos was sacrifice,service, problem-solving
people.
(07:16):
And I made the commentsomewhere along the line, like
only a kid would do.
I said, boy, I was lucky thatyou were at that place at that
time.
And my dad says, well, maybe itwas lucky.
He said, but sometimes you haveto work for your luck.
He says, I was calling oncustomers.
I was at this location.
(07:38):
I was trying to provideservice.
They knew I wanted some morework.
So a hunger for solvingproblems, growing our business,
I think that's all part of ourDNA.
And that, hopefully, was passedon from our founders, my uncle
(07:59):
was very similar to my dad inthat regard, to the next
generation of owners andmanagers, and so it goes to the
third and fourth generation.
Our DNA is very important inour heritage.
Samantha (08:13):
Absolutely.
I love how you talk about thesacrifice they made and just the
way that they did things in theway they prioritize things.
And one of those things thatyou mentioned was the values
that they had.
Can you talk a little bit moreabout the values that the
founders maybe had that stayedwith through the DNA of the
(08:34):
company?
Mark (08:35):
Can I add something?
Yeah, of course.
One thing that Hank said, let'scircle back to the second, but
he said, hopefully those thingswere passed on from the
founders.
So when you talk about values,Hank said, hopefully those
things were passed on from thefounders.
to the next gen, to the leaderstoday.
When you think about DNA, onething that comes to mind is DNA
doesn't change.
You're born with the same DNA,you die with the same DNA.
(08:57):
So think about that.
So in the early days when Hanksaid, hopefully, the business
today looks very different thanit did 78 years ago.
We have different uniforms, wehave different buildings, we
have different geographicfootprint, but at the core, many
of the things that we do arethe same today because of what
was started way back when.
(09:18):
So when Hank says, hopefullythose things were passed on.
So the values, your question,I'll let Hank answer that in a
second, but the values that werestarted way back when, seven,
eight years ago that werebirthed, think about DNA, that
still is very much the sametoday.
And the opportunity that wehave as leaders and in a
continuing business is to drawout the DNA and the qualities
(09:41):
that were expressed from wayback when.
I like to think about that andfocus on the fact that all of
the things that Hank mentionedway back when are still very
evident today because that'swhere we started and we have an
opportunity to continue to growthe business, but what's at the
core, the values, which I'll lethim answer, is still very much
(10:02):
the same from 78 years ago as wehave grown and changed, but we
are still at the core, have alot of those same things.
Hank (10:09):
Yeah.
Well, thanks, Mark.
I do think it's important.
And that consistency, thatthread runs through multiple
generations.
And I think it largelycontributes to our success and
who we are today.
When you ask about values,think about, again, all the way
(10:31):
back to the early days, thethings that were relevant and
things that were important.
And Back to that story aboutgoing offshore, my dad was so
proud of the people that wentoffshore and solved those
problems.
And he would say, you know, Idon't know how to run a
(10:53):
platform.
I don't know how to run acrane.
He says, but I don't know howto, I'm not a very good
mechanic.
And I could say, me too.
But he said, we had people Someof them were his relatives, his
cousins and his nephews and soon.
He says, but people are soimportant to our, we're a people
(11:17):
business.
And the value of people beingimportant and raising up people
was always front and center Thevalue, this is kind of an
interesting, kind of elementaryvalue of learning and
(11:38):
improvement.
But my dad, like I said, wasn'tformally educated.
But I never saw him without abook.
He was always reading a book.
And when I was a kid, early on,I had the opportunity to travel
with him.
He had a boat brokeragebusiness in Harvey, and I'd get
(11:59):
to ride with him.
And often we'd, so we'd go toHarvey and he'd go into the
office and talk to the peoplewho manage the business.
And he'd say, you go on theboats and see what's going on.
And so I had the freedom to runon a couple of boats and
naturally I'd go to the galleyand see what kind of snacks they
had and food they had.
(12:19):
But inevitably I'd visit withthe people who were working and
we would dialogue some.
And then on the ride home, mydad would begin to quiz me.
He said, what did you see?
What did you learn?
And I began to realize that Iwasn't...
He didn't want to know justwhat kind of snacks I had on the
(12:39):
boat.
He wanted to know what I waslearning about from those
captains and those men whoworked on the boats.
And after a couple of trips, Irealized that I was going to be
quizzed on what was going on onthe boat.
And he had asked me things.
Well, did you go into theengine room?
What did it look like?
Did you go into the...
(13:00):
captain's quarters or the pilothouse.
What did it look like?
Was it clean?
Was it well maintained?
And he was telling me thatcontinuous learning or
continuous improvement was animportant value.
And we didn't say all thosethings, but the values of people
(13:23):
being important, the values oflearning, were well set at an
early age, the values ofintegrity.
He would talk about customerswith great respect, and he would
tell me that customers expectedcertain things from us, no
(13:44):
more, no less, and that's whatwe were required to give them.
So I was learning value lessonsthat were firmly planted in my
heart and soul, so to speak,that we continue to, we
(14:04):
formalized a list of values someyears later.
We formalized our purposestatement some years later, but
those things were pretty firmlyentrenched in the way our
founders acted and conductedtheir business.
Samantha (14:23):
Mark, did you have anything to add?
I do have something that Iwanted to follow up with.
Mark (14:27):
No, go ahead.
Samantha (14:28):
So you mentioned the place in that your father placed
great importance on people.
He knew the value of hisemployees and really respected
them and wanted to, I guess,make sure they were they felt
that importance and theyunderstood how important they
were to the company.
Do you have any examples ofmaybe back of how your father,
(14:51):
ways he interacted with theemployees that maybe showed
that?
Hank (14:55):
Yeah.
Well, a couple of examples.
Two things that I guess come tomind.
One is when I was a youngster,again, we would...
often go to festivals or fairsthat we love in South Louisiana.
(15:17):
And I'd go with my dad, and healways had a, seemed to have a
pocket full of $1 bills, andthis, when a dollar, you could
really buy something with adollar.
And we'd walk around the fairfor a bit, and if he saw some
children my age, my colleagues,particularly those who were
(15:40):
relatives or whose parents workfor our company, he'd call them
over and give them some money, adollar or two, and I was kind
of wondering when was I gonnaget my dollar or two.
And eventually, after we didthat for a little bit, then he'd
give me a couple of bucks andtell me to go have a good time.
But I was witnessing hisrespect for people, even kids,
(16:02):
and his generosity for kids.
our relatives and the peoplethat work.
He always told me, this kid'sdad works for our company.
They're important.
He didn't exactly use thosewords, but it was pretty clear
they were important.
One of the best examples that Irecall coming to mind was now
(16:28):
I'm a teenager and we moved intoa different house.
And For a number of years, welived with my grandfather.
We didn't have a house of ourown.
It was our grandfather's house.
And then my mom and dad built ahouse.
So we moved into this newhouse, which was modern and a
nice home.
And we were having dinner likewe typically did, my brother and
(16:49):
my mother and my father andmyself.
And the doorbell rang.
And this unique story oruniqueness about this new house
is we had three doors and therewere three doorbells and each
one had a different chime.
So I knew exactly what doorsomebody was ringing the
doorbell at dinner.
And I looked out the window andI could see the car and I
(17:11):
recognized the car and Irecognized the family and I knew
it was somebody that...
represented an employee ofDanos, and the children, one of
the children in the car, it wasa carload of children, one of
them was a classmate of mine, soI knew exactly who it was.
So I said, I got it, and I'mkind of a mischievous teenager
at the time, young teenager,maybe 12, 13 years old,
(17:34):
whatever.
So I ran to the door and openedthe door, and there's this lady
there who I expected, when thefirst time she had come, she was
kind of rough, but she was...
Polite.
She says, is your daddy home?
I said, yes, ma'am.
So I ran back to the tablewhere my parents were, which was
just a few steps away.
And I said, it's MissSo-and-so.
(17:55):
She wants to talk to daddy.
And my mother kind of took asigh, an exasperated sigh.
She says, why do they alwayscome at dinner time?
And my dad got up.
And, you know, I...
I didn't realize at the moment,but I realized after the fact,
(18:16):
they came at dinnertime becausethat's when my daddy would be
home.
Danos didn't have an office atthat time.
His office was in his car.
It was a rolling office.
He went, the office went wherehe went.
The administrative office wasin somebody's garage apartment
who did part-time bookkeeping.
So they came at dinnertimebecause that's when my dad was
(18:37):
home.
So my dad went to the door andtalked to the lady, came back
and Sat down, he said, she needs$25.
I'm not sure the number forfood for the children.
And he sat down, and then therewas a little awkward silence.
(18:57):
And I realized after the fact,my mom was the bookkeeper.
She was the money manager.
He wasn't going to go write acheck.
He could have.
He knew how to make out acheck.
But I don't know if this wasorchestrated for my benefit, my
brother's benefit, or not.
In hindsight, sometimes I thinkabout it.
But he sat down.
(19:19):
It was silence.
He says, Thelma, that's mymama's name.
He just said, Thelma.
She took a deep breath.
She backed up.
She wrote a check, came back,gave it to my dad.
He signed the check, went tothe door, gave it to the lady,
came back, sat down.
And there's more.
Awkward silence, I'm thinking,you know.
(19:42):
And then my dad said somethinglike, you know, that guy, he
named him.
He says, he's been working forus for years.
He's a good guy.
He works six, seven days aweek.
He knows how to run a platform.
He's a good man.
He's got a big family.
It's hard for them to make endsmeet.
We're lucky he's part of ourcompany.
(20:02):
Silence for a moment.
And my mother said, Hank, Oh,tell me something about school
today.
It was over.
Subject done, point made,employee valued.
And my mom and dad had thispartnership.
(20:22):
I mean, she could be tough, butthey worked together.
They respected each other.
They knew the value ofemployees.
She made her point.
He made his point.
And I got to witness it, thevalue of employees.
the respect for employees.
And I think it was a greatlesson for me.
(20:43):
I'll tell you the rest of thestory.
10 years later, my dad's going,I'm in charge of the company.
My brother and I are.
We have an office now.
This man is still working forour company.
His wife shows up at the officenow because there's a place to
(21:04):
go.
She didn't have to come to ourhouse at dinnertime, and she
wants to borrow some money.
The man who's our bookkeeperwas my daddy's generation.
He retired from our old companynow.
He was a full-time employee.
So the request, I don't know,it came through me, through him,
to loan this lady.
(21:24):
Maybe it's $50 or $75 now, anadvance on his check.
So he comes in my office and hesays, how in the world am I
supposed to do my business?
Everybody wants to borrowmoney.
I got these people.
Why don't they balance thatbudget and take it?
Now, he's an accountant, so heknows how to balance his budget
and run his business and all ofthat.
(21:46):
So he's railing at me aboutthis woman.
And I don't know that I thought10 years earlier, but it was
firmly implanted in my mind.
And I said, Johnny?
make the check.
Now I'm talking to somebody inmy father's generation.
I'm a little timid.
I'm in charge, but he's a veryimportant part of our company.
(22:10):
I said, make the check.
So he went, he made the check.
He gave it to me.
I signed it, gave it to her.
Point made.
Here's this 10 years later, alesson that I learned and
witnessed 10 or 15 years priorto.
And Johnny substitutes for mymama, so to speak, and we get to
(22:32):
replay this thing again.
Value of employees, they wereimportant.
They are important.
Samantha (22:40):
There's so many things I love about that story,
particularly the one when you'reat your childhood home.
I love the dynamic you talkabout with your parents and how
they had that partnership, youknow, running the business, but
also just how their generosityand And their love for people
and care for people really comesthrough in that story.
And so you kind of touched onthis, how the generosity has
(23:02):
continued throughout thegenerations of the business.
But so I wanted to, can youexpand any on that?
Or Mark, maybe you have somethoughts or stories that you
witnessed of how that generosityhas continued to develop and
grow with the company.
Mark (23:19):
Yeah, I'm enjoying hearing Hank's stories because some of
these I haven't heard before.
Some of them I have heard bitsand pieces of this, but I would
say more is caught than taught.
That's what I'm thinking asHank's speaking is these life
lessons.
We talked about DNA a secondago, how DNA is inherent in us,
and it takes time to pull itout.
As an organization, we'refinding the best in people and
(23:40):
pulling it out, allowing peopleto express their talents and
gifts and abilities better.
And when you think from agenerosity standpoint, all these
little lessons, that wasinherent in us from the very
beginning.
Hank caught that.
It was taught, but he caught itbecause it was lived out.
And now how is that expressedtoday?
I'm sure we'll talk about Seedsof Giving in a bit, but I want
(24:01):
to hear some more stories.
Hank, how else was thatexpressed in the early days?
And we can transition about howthat is today.
Hank (24:12):
Yeah, I think about all the way back to the story about
the fairs or the festivals thatwe went to.
And I witnessed my dad'sgenerosity.
And I witnessed my dad helpingsome of his relatives who were
less fortunate.
At that point, by the time I'ma teenager, we have a pretty
(24:34):
successful I say we.
My parents have a prettysuccessful business.
My uncle's already gone.
My dad's in charge of thecompany, owns the company.
My uncle's gone and my cousinsand my aunt are there and part
of the company.
(24:54):
I witnessed my dad and my mom'saffection and generosity
towards his partner, towards thefamily of his deceased partner.
I witnessed their involvementin the community when things
were starting up.
At an early age, I knew that Iwatched my mother, because she
(25:19):
was the bookkeeper, work on thebooks, and she'd write a check
donate to the church.
She'd write a check to donateto the schools that we were
involved in.
They were following us andfollowing the community.
They had a sense.
I heard dinnertime stories thatas goes The community, so goes
(25:43):
businesses.
And as goes businesses, so goesthe community.
So there was some partnershipand some sense of responsibility
for a growing business that wehad to give back to the
community.
So I heard that.
You know, a few years later inthe early 20s, I'm 21, my
(26:03):
brother's 23, my dad's gone.
We're in charge of the company.
We're in the process of buyingmy mother's interest out.
And so how are we going tocontinue that legacy?
How's that DNA going tocontinue to live in us and
growing through us, I shouldsay?
growing the business and yetunderstanding the importance of
(26:26):
having a healthy communityaround us.
It sounds a little selfish, butI think, I don't mean to sound
selfish, but I think that Thecommunity had to be healthy for
the business and the businesshad to be healthy for the
community and the industry.
So my brother and I learnedthat we need to continue to be
(26:48):
generous and supportive andinvolved in the community so
that we could help raise up ahealthy community, which would
furnish employees, which wouldeducate our employees' children,
including our own children.
So my brother and I, began towork on that and our business
began to expand into othercommunities.
(27:08):
We had branch offices inIntercoastal City and Galveston
and Morgan City and Burris.
And so we realized that thosecommunities had to be healthy
too.
So we thought about how wewould continue to, it wasn't so
sophisticated, but it was partof our DNA.
(27:30):
And then, you know, thingsevolved, and Mark can really
speak to this, but thingsevolved to the point that we
dedicated, we began afoundation, and Mark can tell
you more about the elements andthe story and the history of the
foundation, but a lot of it isbuilt on that generosity, and
(27:53):
watching the generosity of ouremployees, how they got involved
in the community.
One of the things that is justamazing to me Obviously, we live
in South Louisiana.
Obviously, there's some stormsthat destroy communities.
And when somebody of ouremployees, one of our employees
had a catastrophe, a storm, afire, or something, the first
(28:15):
people who were there werefellow employees who were
helping, lending, bringing theirswords, bringing their
resources to help.
So I think part of the DNA justwent through the fabric of the
organization, and we fed on eachother.
We saw our employees beinggenerous.
(28:35):
We became more generous.
They saw us become generous.
They became more generous.
And so it goes, the foundationand the things that have grown
about that value of beinggenerous.
Samantha (28:48):
Mark, do you want to talk a little bit about how the
foundation did start?
I know Mr.
Hank mentioned that theemployees became generous and
stepped up.
How did that look from aforming of the foundation
Mark (29:00):
standpoint?
Yeah, good question.
When I think about how toanswer that, I've been...
involved with the business insome form or fashion for more
than 40 years.
I've been full-time here formore than 10 years.
I've been involved for a longtime.
We've talked about DNA.
We've talked about the quality.
We've talked about more iscaught than taught.
And some of these lessons thatI didn't hear, but we can see
(29:20):
how that's expressed.
And when we think about what wecall seeds of giving today, and
that's the philanthropic orcommunity-oriented arm of what
we do, they really start as agrassroots effort.
We have done things in responseto the community in ways from
way back, even when mygrandfather never heard that
story, giving out dollar billsto the kids in the community at
(29:42):
a fair.
And how has that changed tohelping people in the community?
Lots of requests.
And I say grassroots becauseover time, we've always had lots
of people in the community thatneeded support with a T-ball
field to be redone or jerseys ora school or things like this.
And we've been very generous torespond.
But for years, we wereresponding to needs and not very
(30:05):
intentional.
And you think about our DNA,and Hank said it as well.
A lot of things that were atthe core, we may capture it
different.
The way we state our values,the way we state our seeds of
giving was an effort and reallydirection from somebody in the
organization that said, hey, wecan do better than just
responding to needs.
Let's figure out how to be realintentional.
(30:25):
Lots of requests.
We can't respond to everything.
We have a limited number ofresources, so where do we really
want to invest?
And you think about ourpurpose.
Honor God developed greatpeople to solve big challenges
for our customers andcommunities.
How can we solve big challengesfor our communities if we're
just a broad brush responding toeverything?
So one of our employees said,let's start what we called the
(30:47):
foundation back then.
Today we call it the seeds ofgiving, and we can talk about
what seeds and think about theterm seeds, the seeds that were
planted by Papa Allen and Thelmaway back when and how that's
expressed today.
But in the early days, we saidour employees are doing great
things in the community.
We want to support ouremployees.
(31:08):
And so there's a couple ofdifferent arms under Seeds of
Giving, what we call Gives,Works, and Cares.
And the latest is Roots.
So Gives, to be clear, thereare lots of organizations in the
community that are doingwonderful things.
We want to solve challenges inthe community.
So this is our...
This is how we invest in thecommunity to organizations that
(31:29):
are doing things that we can'tdo, but because we support them,
we can enable them to have abigger impact.
So we're giving in thecommunities.
Works is when our employeesare, and many of you, maybe some
of you listening to the podcastor volunteering at
organizations in yourcommunities, we want to support
those organizations through you.
(31:49):
So as a company, we want toinvest where our people are
investing.
So when our employees aregiving of their time, we wanna
give of our financial resources.
So we're sponsoring $10 anhour.
So if you're volunteering at anorganization and you're not
reporting your hours, you'releaving money on the table that
you could be giving to yourorganization.
And then CARES, Hank mentionedthat as well, Often catastrophes
(32:15):
are events that happen,unforeseen events that people
don't have control over.
Our employees have a need.
A mother needs to feed, wayback when it was a mother that
needed to feed her children.
They came and said, can Iborrow money?
Well, today it may be a fire,it may be a death in the family,
it may be a sickness.
And through Danos Cares, we'reresponding to those needs.
So when you think about givesand works, those are outward
(32:36):
community.
Cares is a response to ourinward community.
We realize that we weremissing, we were responding to
our inward needs.
inside Danos community, we weremissing an opportunity to
invest in our community.
And that's where Roots came in.
You think about Roots, thinkabout a tree, having a strong
foundation.
How can we invest in building astrong foundation within our
(32:56):
organization?
And that's where Roots camefrom, where we want to, what
better way to invest in ourcommunity, our Danos community,
than building strong families?
So we're sponsoring camps,financial programs, piece of
something that we're doing,helping people to learn how to
manage their finances better,teaching them that.
summer trips, lots of differentthings, and it's still new.
(33:17):
So we're trying to find waysthat we can support people.
So the generosity that startedway back when, now we're trying
to be real intentional solvingproblems.
But everything that we've donereally started with the idea of
an employee that said, we can bebetter.
And now we've formed thesecommittees, and these committees
are made up by Danos employees.
And this isn't just Danosgiving the money.
(33:39):
These are employees that aredonating money to Seeds of
Giving and then in turn we'reable to steward it as a company
and have a bigger impact becauseas a community we can take the
resources and we can invest themtogether as a community instead
of one person or oneorganization and we're taking
the best ideas that come frominside the community.
So it's been really neat to seethe transition and the growth
(34:01):
that's happened.
Samantha (34:02):
So there's been a lot of growth for both the business
side of things, clearly, sincethe company started, you know,
78 years ago, but also on thephilanthropic generosity side of
things that has grownsignificantly as well.
Are there, have there been anychallenges or, you know, how
does a company balance thebusiness profit side of things
with also maintaining thatspirit of generosity and that
(34:26):
spirit of giving to both theiremployees and to the community?
Hank (34:31):
You want me to go first or you want to go?
Well, I was going to saythings, the evolution.
I was going to make a commentabout the evolution and think
about balancing that question.
And back to 78 years ago whenwe were a one boat, two man
(34:54):
operation and things evolved toa point maybe 50 years later, we
got a little moresophisticated, a little bigger,
and then from the secondgeneration to the third
generation, and Eric and Pauland Mark came in from working
(35:15):
and being educated, had been allover the world.
Mark had been in four or fivedifferent countries working, and
his brothers from the WestCoast to Houston, and one of the
early questions that we had toaddresses that they said, okay,
we've coming home to SouthLouisiana, why are we here?
(35:36):
They had already made thedecision to come, but they
wanted to address it formally.
Why are we here?
What's our purpose?
What's our values?
And not discounting the DNAthat had run, that was running
and continues to run through thecompany, it had to be personal
(35:56):
for them.
So, They formalized the purposeand said, besides formalizing a
purpose statement, which Markjust stated, honor God, develop
great people to solve challengesfor our customers and our
community.
They said, we're going to livethat out.
And they acknowledged, and weacknowledged, that sometimes
(36:21):
living out your purpose causesconflict and presents
challenges.
And we knew that serving thecommunity, serving customers,
being profitable, being generousis all embedded in our purpose
statement.
But if we did it correctly,that we would be able to live
(36:45):
out our purpose and prosper.
We are a for-profit company.
So we never shied away from thefact that we are a for-profit
company.
But how much we make, What wedo with that profit, how we
reinvest it in the company andin the community to build more
opportunities is real important.
(37:06):
And I believe that when you'regenerous in a broad spectrum and
invest properly in thecommunity and people development
and people who are maybe needythat can't ever pay back, it
pays great dividends and thecompany profits flourishes
(37:27):
because it attracts people whohave a similar set of values,
who don't mind working hard butare generous.
And that translates to greatcustomer satisfaction, which
translates to repeat customers,which translates to
opportunities for us to grow ourcompany and become profitable
(37:50):
and continue to be generous.
So it's just...
really a part of the wholepuzzle, the whole purpose.
And I think, yes, sometimesthose things seem to have come
into conflict, but when we canpull it off properly, everybody
(38:11):
benefits.
The customers, the community,the employees, the owners.
So I think that's animportant...
project that we have to alwaysstay focused on.
How do we live out our purpose?
Which includes being generous.
Samantha (38:31):
Thank you, Mark.
I know you had something youwanted to add to that.
I
Mark (38:33):
think Hank captured it well.
But what I would add to is aprocess, what he said.
Having a business,multi-generation family business
that's approaching 80 years isnot easy to do.
And we have been...
And there's no guarantee ofsuccess that it'll make it to 80
or 81 or 82 years.
We have a purpose that drivesus, right?
(38:55):
We're not going to forsake ourpurpose in order to maintain a
business.
But by driving towards ourpurpose, we talked about DNA, we
talked about values.
All of those things areexpressed through our business.
And when we're successful as abusiness, we're able, we're in a
position to have a biggercommunity impact.
So that drives us on.
(39:16):
When you're having a biggercommunity impact, it drives
people that want to be a part ofwhat you're doing.
So again, Hank talked about howit's complimentary.
It absolutely is.
Again, there's no guarantee tosuccess, but we will never
compromise our purpose in orderto maintain a successful
company.
They're complimentary.
We want to make sure thatpurpose first.
We're driving.
(39:36):
We're going to do the rightthings.
We're going to honor God.
We're going to develop people.
We're going to solve challengesin our customers and
communities.
And in the process of doingthat, we have great people that
are going to come up with greatideas, like we talked about a
minute ago with Seeds of Giving.
We will have people thatchallenge it.
We have had customers and wehave had employees that said,
why are you giving all thatmoney in the community?
(39:57):
When you think about when ourcustomers are cutting back and
saying, we need rate reductions.
So if we're talking aboutimpacting the community, there's
the perception, and people haveactually said it, that if we're
giving money in the community,our customers are gonna think
that we're charging them toomuch.
So they're gonna want ratereductions.
Absolutely something we shouldconsider.
But we're not gonna stop doingthe right thing.
(40:19):
We're not gonna stop investingin the community.
When we do the right thing, theright results will happen.
That may mean that we continueto grow.
That may mean that we have topivot.
But it's, again, verycomplimentary.
And it's a challenge that we'vehad to consider and we will
continue to consider.
And we want the right peoplewith the right ideas that are
(40:40):
continuing to challenge us to dogreat things.
Samantha (40:43):
Employees are such a big part of the business, but
the foundation, they've really,you mentioned employees' idea
started the foundation, and it'snow Seeds of Giving.
Can you tell them a little moreabout that?
Mark (40:55):
Yes, Samantha, I would say Seeds of Giving, we talked
about the word foundation, Hankused that, you just used that as
well, Seeds of Giving.
What is it?
We're planting seeds, we'regrowing, we're having an impact.
And this is a community effort.
So this is not just a DanosCorporation.
When the company is successful,we're able to have an impact.
Yes, when the company issuccessful, we're able to have a
(41:16):
bigger impact.
But it's been really, reallyneat and encouraging to see how
the employees have responded.
So this could be employees thathave been on the receiving end.
This could be employees thathave been involved in community
efforts.
But we've been fortunate.
It's not just about dollars,it's about lives impacted, but
when you think about it and whenyou measure dollars, more than
(41:37):
20% of what we give comes fromthe employees.
So that makes me often justtake a step back and think, wow,
it compels me from anaccountability and from a
stewardship standpoint that thisis not just a company writing a
check.
we're investing dollars, morethan 20% that is given by our
(41:58):
employees.
So think about the impact thatwe're having, lives touched,
areas impacted, partnering withgreat organizations and
responding to needs.
So it's very much a partnershipthat goes across all aspects of
the organization and all peopleinvolved.
Samantha (42:14):
Great, anything else to add?
Hank (42:17):
I heard somebody, a very successful, businessman recently
on a podcast say something thatI've been thinking about for
the last few days.
It just happened a few daysago, but he said, dreaming is
like a muscle.
And he said, the more we dream,the more we develop that
(42:39):
muscle.
And he was not only asuccessful businessman, but a
very successful businessman whowas very generous And he says,
we need to practice dreaming todo big things, better things,
awesome things.
(42:59):
And that includes not onlygrowing your business, but
developing people and beinggenerous to the community and
the areas where you wanna begenerous.
So we're gonna continue todream And we're going to include
not just the owners, but asmany people as we can in our
(43:23):
organization to dream with ushow we can be successful.
And we measure success not onlyin profit, but in generosity
and in developing people.
And we have to do that as ateam.
So we're dreaming big, and wewant to include plenty of people
in our dream.
Samantha (43:43):
Thank you.
Thank you for letting us be apart of that dream and to
continue dreaming with you.
Hank (43:49):
Thank you for giving us the opportunity to tell our
story, some parts of the story.
It's great.
Samantha (43:57):
I think everyone enjoyed hearing it.
It's great.
Great listening.
Thank
Hank (44:00):
you.
Thank you, Samantha.
Good morning, everyone.
Thank you for joining us today.
I'm Samantha McGee with theDanos Marketing Team, and today
we've got owner Hank Danos, whois chairman of the board, and
owner Mark Danos, who is CEO ofDanos Family Investments.
Did I get that right?
You got it.
Go t it.
Good.
So today we're going to talkabout the DNA of Danos and what
makes up Danos, what makes itdifferent, and what makes it
(00:20):
truly special.
And I guess when I say the DNAof Danos, what does that look
like to you?
I'll start with you, Mr.
Hank.
Hank (00:27):
Yeah.
Well, obviously we're a littleprejudiced.
We think we're special.
But when I think about DNA, Ithink about, from a human
standpoint, it's molecular,genetic, and it goes back
generations.
And we can trace who we are, orscientists can trace who we
(00:52):
are, by looking at our DNA.
So if you apply that to acompany, it may not be as
scientific, but the way I thinkabout it, when I think about DNA
of Danos, I think about theearly origins, the founders of
our company, the things thatthey valued, the things that
(01:13):
were important to them, thethings that drove them to start
a company.
And when that is firmlyentrenched in the founders, the
early, the beginners of thecompany, in our case, of the
company, it tends to followgenerations of leadership,
(01:34):
ownership, management.
So, for example, I think aboutthe early days when our company
was just a few years old when Iwas barely a toddler, for
instance, and I looked out awindow one day and I saw my dad
sitting walking out the doorwith a suitcase, getting in the
(01:55):
car and driving off.
So, you know, naturally, as akid, I ran to the door and asked
my mother, where is he going?
What's happening?
You know, my dad was leaving.
And she said, well, he's goingto work on the boat.
And I said, well, how long ishe going to be gone?
She says he's going to be goneseven days because he and his
co-founder, my uncle, had a boatand they worked together.
(02:17):
seven days on seven days off ofthe boat so i got upset my
dad's gone for seven days and mymother sat me down and she says
okay your dad is building abusiness and part of building a
business means we work hardsometimes we make sacrifices
sometimes we have to leave homeand so on so that planted a seed
(02:41):
i didn't say okay i connectedall the dots but I think about
our DNA of sacrifice, of workinghard, of being ambitious.
These two men who started thecompany were Cajun men.
They weren't formally educated.
They lived in a rural area.
And they made a decision,rather than going to work in the
fishing industry, which is whattheir background was, they
(03:02):
decided they wanted to start abusiness.
So something was driving them.
So part of our DNA was that.
And then I think forward to...
you know, I don't know if itwas a few months or a few years,
probably not a few years, but ashort time after that, my dad
was home and he was leaving.
(03:23):
And again, I asked my mother, Isaid, where's he going?
She said, he's going to work.
And I said, well, I thought myuncle was on the boat and he was
off.
And my mother again said, itdoesn't work that way.
When you're building abusiness, he's got to call on
customers.
He's got to look for jobs, andhe's got to do things.
So, you know, those seeds wereplanted early on that the DNA of
(03:47):
our company was sacrifice, hardwork, being different in a
sense, being gone sometimes.
And, you know, I think thatjust continued to follow us for
the generations that...
(04:08):
continue to follow.
I think one more example thatI'll talk about our DNA, I
guess, if you will, is Danos wasa boat company in the early
days, and there wereopportunities.
Eventually, we became a laborsupplier providing labor
(04:31):
offshore.
And I didn't witness this, butthis was a story that my dad was
happy to share with with me, Ieither asked him, or let's say I
asked him, how did we ever goto work offshore and evolve into
the labor business?
And there was somethinginteresting that he said.
One day, he was calling on GolfAll, our primary customer, in
(04:59):
Cut-Off, at their work site, andhe was walking back to his car,
and All of a sudden the windowopened and somebody yelled out
of the window, Alan, who's myfather's name, said, can I talk
to you for a minute?
And the guy who called him wasVic Jones.
I remember that name well.
He was the manager, the boss,the guy who managed all of Gulf
(05:24):
Oil's activity in Louisiana.
It wasn't a substantial amountof activity.
Anyway, my dad walked in andVic Jones says, Alan, we have
this offshore platform in SouthMarsh Island and we're having
trouble finding people who canhelp us produce the oil.
And he said, can you help us?
(05:46):
And my dad obviously said,well, yeah, what do you need?
He says, well, you know,there's a lot of mechanical
stuff offshore.
People, they're having troublefixing it.
They have to live offshore andthey're having trouble adjusting
to the lifestyle.
(06:07):
And he named a few things.
And as my dad related the storyto me sometimes later, he says,
as I thought about that, hesaid, I thought, wow.
He says, my people, our people,the people I live and work with
are fishermen.
And my mother's people, hesays, your mama's people are
(06:29):
farmers.
He says, these people, whensomething breaks, they have to
fix it.
He said, we don't callmechanics.
We fix things.
And he says, if they're out inthe middle of the field or in a
bay fishing, something likethat, and the weather gets bad,
we work in bad weather.
We work in tough conditions.
So essentially, he said, Istarted to recruit the guys that
(06:56):
I worked with, the guys that Iknew, the guys that would be
problem solvers.
Again, that was just an exampleof the DNA.
What built Danos was sacrifice,service, problem-solving
people.
(07:16):
And I made the commentsomewhere along the line, like
only a kid would do.
I said, boy, I was lucky thatyou were at that place at that
time.
And my dad says, well, maybe itwas lucky.
He said, but sometimes you haveto work for your luck.
He says, I was calling oncustomers.
I was at this location.
(07:38):
I was trying to provideservice.
They knew I wanted some morework.
So a hunger for solvingproblems, growing our business,
I think that's all part of ourDNA.
And that, hopefully, was passedon from our founders, my uncle
(07:59):
was very similar to my dad inthat regard, to the next
generation of owners andmanagers, and so it goes to the
third and fourth generation.
Our DNA is very important inour heritage.
Samantha (08:13):
Absolutely.
I love how you talk about thesacrifice they made and just the
way that they did things in theway they prioritize things.
And one of those things thatyou mentioned was the values
that they had.
Can you talk a little bit moreabout the values that the
founders maybe had that stayedwith through the DNA of the
(08:34):
company?
Mark (08:35):
Can I add something?
Yeah, of course.
One thing that Hank said, let'scircle back to the second, but
he said, hopefully those thingswere passed on from the
founders.
So when you talk about values,Hank said, hopefully those
things were passed on from thefounders.
to the next gen, to the leaderstoday.
When you think about DNA, onething that comes to mind is DNA
doesn't change.
You're born with the same DNA,you die with the same DNA.
(08:57):
So think about that.
So in the early days when Hanksaid, hopefully, the business
today looks very different thanit did 78 years ago.
We have different uniforms, wehave different buildings, we
have different geographicfootprint, but at the core, many
of the things that we do arethe same today because of what
was started way back when.
(09:18):
So when Hank says, hopefullythose things were passed on.
So the values, your question,I'll let Hank answer that in a
second, but the values that werestarted way back when, seven,
eight years ago that werebirthed, think about DNA, that
still is very much the sametoday.
And the opportunity that wehave as leaders and in a
continuing business is to drawout the DNA and the qualities
(09:41):
that were expressed from wayback when.
I like to think about that andfocus on the fact that all of
the things that Hank mentionedway back when are still very
evident today because that'swhere we started and we have an
opportunity to continue to growthe business, but what's at the
core, the values, which I'll lethim answer, is still very much
(10:02):
the same from 78 years ago as wehave grown and changed, but we
are still at the core, have alot of those same things.
Hank (10:09):
Yeah.
Well, thanks, Mark.
I do think it's important.
And that consistency, thatthread runs through multiple
generations.
And I think it largelycontributes to our success and
who we are today.
When you ask about values,think about, again, all the way
(10:31):
back to the early days, thethings that were relevant and
things that were important.
And Back to that story aboutgoing offshore, my dad was so
proud of the people that wentoffshore and solved those
problems.
And he would say, you know, Idon't know how to run a
(10:53):
platform.
I don't know how to run acrane.
He says, but I don't know howto, I'm not a very good
mechanic.
And I could say, me too.
But he said, we had people Someof them were his relatives, his
cousins and his nephews and soon.
He says, but people are soimportant to our, we're a people
(11:17):
business.
And the value of people beingimportant and raising up people
was always front and center Thevalue, this is kind of an
interesting, kind of elementaryvalue of learning and
(11:38):
improvement.
But my dad, like I said, wasn'tformally educated.
But I never saw him without abook.
He was always reading a book.
And when I was a kid, early on,I had the opportunity to travel
with him.
He had a boat brokeragebusiness in Harvey, and I'd get
(11:59):
to ride with him.
And often we'd, so we'd go toHarvey and he'd go into the
office and talk to the peoplewho manage the business.
And he'd say, you go on theboats and see what's going on.
And so I had the freedom to runon a couple of boats and
naturally I'd go to the galleyand see what kind of snacks they
had and food they had.
(12:19):
But inevitably I'd visit withthe people who were working and
we would dialogue some.
And then on the ride home, mydad would begin to quiz me.
He said, what did you see?
What did you learn?
And I began to realize that Iwasn't...
He didn't want to know justwhat kind of snacks I had on the
(12:39):
boat.
He wanted to know what I waslearning about from those
captains and those men whoworked on the boats.
And after a couple of trips, Irealized that I was going to be
quizzed on what was going on onthe boat.
And he had asked me things.
Well, did you go into theengine room?
What did it look like?
Did you go into the...
(13:00):
captain's quarters or the pilothouse.
What did it look like?
Was it clean?
Was it well maintained?
And he was telling me thatcontinuous learning or
continuous improvement was animportant value.
And we didn't say all thosethings, but the values of people
(13:23):
being important, the values oflearning, were well set at an
early age, the values ofintegrity.
He would talk about customerswith great respect, and he would
tell me that customers expectedcertain things from us, no
(13:44):
more, no less, and that's whatwe were required to give them.
So I was learning value lessonsthat were firmly planted in my
heart and soul, so to speak,that we continue to, we
(14:04):
formalized a list of values someyears later.
We formalized our purposestatement some years later, but
those things were pretty firmlyentrenched in the way our
founders acted and conductedtheir business.
Samantha (14:23):
Mark, did you have anything to add?
I do have something that Iwanted to follow up with.
Mark (14:27):
No, go ahead.
Samantha (14:28):
So you mentioned the place in that your father placed
great importance on people.
He knew the value of hisemployees and really respected
them and wanted to, I guess,make sure they were they felt
that importance and theyunderstood how important they
were to the company.
Do you have any examples ofmaybe back of how your father,
(14:51):
ways he interacted with theemployees that maybe showed
that?
Hank (14:55):
Yeah.
Well, a couple of examples.
Two things that I guess come tomind.
One is when I was a youngster,again, we would...
often go to festivals or fairsthat we love in South Louisiana.
(15:17):
And I'd go with my dad, and healways had a, seemed to have a
pocket full of $1 bills, andthis, when a dollar, you could
really buy something with adollar.
And we'd walk around the fairfor a bit, and if he saw some
children my age, my colleagues,particularly those who were
(15:40):
relatives or whose parents workfor our company, he'd call them
over and give them some money, adollar or two, and I was kind
of wondering when was I gonnaget my dollar or two.
And eventually, after we didthat for a little bit, then he'd
give me a couple of bucks andtell me to go have a good time.
But I was witnessing hisrespect for people, even kids,
(16:02):
and his generosity for kids.
our relatives and the peoplethat work.
He always told me, this kid'sdad works for our company.
They're important.
He didn't exactly use thosewords, but it was pretty clear
they were important.
One of the best examples that Irecall coming to mind was now
(16:28):
I'm a teenager and we moved intoa different house.
And For a number of years, welived with my grandfather.
We didn't have a house of ourown.
It was our grandfather's house.
And then my mom and dad built ahouse.
So we moved into this newhouse, which was modern and a
nice home.
And we were having dinner likewe typically did, my brother and
(16:49):
my mother and my father andmyself.
And the doorbell rang.
And this unique story oruniqueness about this new house
is we had three doors and therewere three doorbells and each
one had a different chime.
So I knew exactly what doorsomebody was ringing the
doorbell at dinner.
And I looked out the window andI could see the car and I
(17:11):
recognized the car and Irecognized the family and I knew
it was somebody that...
represented an employee ofDanos, and the children, one of
the children in the car, it wasa carload of children, one of
them was a classmate of mine, soI knew exactly who it was.
So I said, I got it, and I'mkind of a mischievous teenager
at the time, young teenager,maybe 12, 13 years old,
(17:34):
whatever.
So I ran to the door and openedthe door, and there's this lady
there who I expected, when thefirst time she had come, she was
kind of rough, but she was...
Polite.
She says, is your daddy home?
I said, yes, ma'am.
So I ran back to the tablewhere my parents were, which was
just a few steps away.
And I said, it's MissSo-and-so.
(17:55):
She wants to talk to daddy.
And my mother kind of took asigh, an exasperated sigh.
She says, why do they alwayscome at dinner time?
And my dad got up.
And, you know, I...
I didn't realize at the moment,but I realized after the fact,
(18:16):
they came at dinnertime becausethat's when my daddy would be
home.
Danos didn't have an office atthat time.
His office was in his car.
It was a rolling office.
He went, the office went wherehe went.
The administrative office wasin somebody's garage apartment
who did part-time bookkeeping.
So they came at dinnertimebecause that's when my dad was
(18:37):
home.
So my dad went to the door andtalked to the lady, came back
and Sat down, he said, she needs$25.
I'm not sure the number forfood for the children.
And he sat down, and then therewas a little awkward silence.
(18:57):
And I realized after the fact,my mom was the bookkeeper.
She was the money manager.
He wasn't going to go write acheck.
He could have.
He knew how to make out acheck.
But I don't know if this wasorchestrated for my benefit, my
brother's benefit, or not.
In hindsight, sometimes I thinkabout it.
But he sat down.
(19:19):
It was silence.
He says, Thelma, that's mymama's name.
He just said, Thelma.
She took a deep breath.
She backed up.
She wrote a check, came back,gave it to my dad.
He signed the check, went tothe door, gave it to the lady,
came back, sat down.
And there's more.
Awkward silence, I'm thinking,you know.
(19:42):
And then my dad said somethinglike, you know, that guy, he
named him.
He says, he's been working forus for years.
He's a good guy.
He works six, seven days aweek.
He knows how to run a platform.
He's a good man.
He's got a big family.
It's hard for them to make endsmeet.
We're lucky he's part of ourcompany.
(20:02):
Silence for a moment.
And my mother said, Hank, Oh,tell me something about school
today.
It was over.
Subject done, point made,employee valued.
And my mom and dad had thispartnership.
(20:22):
I mean, she could be tough, butthey worked together.
They respected each other.
They knew the value ofemployees.
She made her point.
He made his point.
And I got to witness it, thevalue of employees.
the respect for employees.
And I think it was a greatlesson for me.
(20:43):
I'll tell you the rest of thestory.
10 years later, my dad's going,I'm in charge of the company.
My brother and I are.
We have an office now.
This man is still working forour company.
His wife shows up at the officenow because there's a place to
(21:04):
go.
She didn't have to come to ourhouse at dinnertime, and she
wants to borrow some money.
The man who's our bookkeeperwas my daddy's generation.
He retired from our old companynow.
He was a full-time employee.
So the request, I don't know,it came through me, through him,
to loan this lady.
(21:24):
Maybe it's $50 or $75 now, anadvance on his check.
So he comes in my office and hesays, how in the world am I
supposed to do my business?
Everybody wants to borrowmoney.
I got these people.
Why don't they balance thatbudget and take it?
Now, he's an accountant, so heknows how to balance his budget
and run his business and all ofthat.
(21:46):
So he's railing at me aboutthis woman.
And I don't know that I thought10 years earlier, but it was
firmly implanted in my mind.
And I said, Johnny?
make the check.
Now I'm talking to somebody inmy father's generation.
I'm a little timid.
I'm in charge, but he's a veryimportant part of our company.
(22:10):
I said, make the check.
So he went, he made the check.
He gave it to me.
I signed it, gave it to her.
Point made.
Here's this 10 years later, alesson that I learned and
witnessed 10 or 15 years priorto.
And Johnny substitutes for mymama, so to speak, and we get to
(22:32):
replay this thing again.
Value of employees, they wereimportant.
They are important.
Samantha (22:40):
There's so many things I love about that story,
particularly the one when you'reat your childhood home.
I love the dynamic you talkabout with your parents and how
they had that partnership, youknow, running the business, but
also just how their generosityand And their love for people
and care for people really comesthrough in that story.
And so you kind of touched onthis, how the generosity has
(23:02):
continued throughout thegenerations of the business.
But so I wanted to, can youexpand any on that?
Or Mark, maybe you have somethoughts or stories that you
witnessed of how that generosityhas continued to develop and
grow with the company.
Mark (23:19):
Yeah, I'm enjoying hearing Hank's stories because some of
these I haven't heard before.
Some of them I have heard bitsand pieces of this, but I would
say more is caught than taught.
That's what I'm thinking asHank's speaking is these life
lessons.
We talked about DNA a secondago, how DNA is inherent in us,
and it takes time to pull itout.
As an organization, we'refinding the best in people and
(23:40):
pulling it out, allowing peopleto express their talents and
gifts and abilities better.
And when you think from agenerosity standpoint, all these
little lessons, that wasinherent in us from the very
beginning.
Hank caught that.
It was taught, but he caught itbecause it was lived out.
And now how is that expressedtoday?
I'm sure we'll talk about Seedsof Giving in a bit, but I want
(24:01):
to hear some more stories.
Hank, how else was thatexpressed in the early days?
And we can transition about howthat is today.
Hank (24:12):
Yeah, I think about all the way back to the story about
the fairs or the festivals thatwe went to.
And I witnessed my dad'sgenerosity.
And I witnessed my dad helpingsome of his relatives who were
less fortunate.
At that point, by the time I'ma teenager, we have a pretty
(24:34):
successful I say we.
My parents have a prettysuccessful business.
My uncle's already gone.
My dad's in charge of thecompany, owns the company.
My uncle's gone and my cousinsand my aunt are there and part
of the company.
(24:54):
I witnessed my dad and my mom'saffection and generosity
towards his partner, towards thefamily of his deceased partner.
I witnessed their involvementin the community when things
were starting up.
At an early age, I knew that Iwatched my mother, because she
(25:19):
was the bookkeeper, work on thebooks, and she'd write a check
donate to the church.
She'd write a check to donateto the schools that we were
involved in.
They were following us andfollowing the community.
They had a sense.
I heard dinnertime stories thatas goes The community, so goes
(25:43):
businesses.
And as goes businesses, so goesthe community.
So there was some partnershipand some sense of responsibility
for a growing business that wehad to give back to the
community.
So I heard that.
You know, a few years later inthe early 20s, I'm 21, my
(26:03):
brother's 23, my dad's gone.
We're in charge of the company.
We're in the process of buyingmy mother's interest out.
And so how are we going tocontinue that legacy?
How's that DNA going tocontinue to live in us and
growing through us, I shouldsay?
growing the business and yetunderstanding the importance of
(26:26):
having a healthy communityaround us.
It sounds a little selfish, butI think, I don't mean to sound
selfish, but I think that Thecommunity had to be healthy for
the business and the businesshad to be healthy for the
community and the industry.
So my brother and I learnedthat we need to continue to be
(26:48):
generous and supportive andinvolved in the community so
that we could help raise up ahealthy community, which would
furnish employees, which wouldeducate our employees' children,
including our own children.
So my brother and I, began towork on that and our business
began to expand into othercommunities.
(27:08):
We had branch offices inIntercoastal City and Galveston
and Morgan City and Burris.
And so we realized that thosecommunities had to be healthy
too.
So we thought about how wewould continue to, it wasn't so
sophisticated, but it was partof our DNA.
(27:30):
And then, you know, thingsevolved, and Mark can really
speak to this, but thingsevolved to the point that we
dedicated, we began afoundation, and Mark can tell
you more about the elements andthe story and the history of the
foundation, but a lot of it isbuilt on that generosity, and
(27:53):
watching the generosity of ouremployees, how they got involved
in the community.
One of the things that is justamazing to me Obviously, we live
in South Louisiana.
Obviously, there's some stormsthat destroy communities.
And when somebody of ouremployees, one of our employees
had a catastrophe, a storm, afire, or something, the first
(28:15):
people who were there werefellow employees who were
helping, lending, bringing theirswords, bringing their
resources to help.
So I think part of the DNA justwent through the fabric of the
organization, and we fed on eachother.
We saw our employees beinggenerous.
(28:35):
We became more generous.
They saw us become generous.
They became more generous.
And so it goes, the foundationand the things that have grown
about that value of beinggenerous.
Samantha (28:48):
Mark, do you want to talk a little bit about how the
foundation did start?
I know Mr.
Hank mentioned that theemployees became generous and
stepped up.
How did that look from aforming of the foundation
Mark (29:00):
standpoint?
Yeah, good question.
When I think about how toanswer that, I've been...
involved with the business insome form or fashion for more
than 40 years.
I've been full-time here formore than 10 years.
I've been involved for a longtime.
We've talked about DNA.
We've talked about the quality.
We've talked about more iscaught than taught.
And some of these lessons thatI didn't hear, but we can see
(29:20):
how that's expressed.
And when we think about what wecall seeds of giving today, and
that's the philanthropic orcommunity-oriented arm of what
we do, they really start as agrassroots effort.
We have done things in responseto the community in ways from
way back, even when mygrandfather never heard that
story, giving out dollar billsto the kids in the community at
(29:42):
a fair.
And how has that changed tohelping people in the community?
Lots of requests.
And I say grassroots becauseover time, we've always had lots
of people in the community thatneeded support with a T-ball
field to be redone or jerseys ora school or things like this.
And we've been very generous torespond.
But for years, we wereresponding to needs and not very
(30:05):
intentional.
And you think about our DNA,and Hank said it as well.
A lot of things that were atthe core, we may capture it
different.
The way we state our values,the way we state our seeds of
giving was an effort and reallydirection from somebody in the
organization that said, hey, wecan do better than just
responding to needs.
Let's figure out how to be realintentional.
(30:25):
Lots of requests.
We can't respond to everything.
We have a limited number ofresources, so where do we really
want to invest?
And you think about ourpurpose.
Honor God developed greatpeople to solve big challenges
for our customers andcommunities.
How can we solve big challengesfor our communities if we're
just a broad brush responding toeverything?
So one of our employees said,let's start what we called the
(30:47):
foundation back then.
Today we call it the seeds ofgiving, and we can talk about
what seeds and think about theterm seeds, the seeds that were
planted by Papa Allen and Thelmaway back when and how that's
expressed today.
But in the early days, we saidour employees are doing great
things in the community.
We want to support ouremployees.
(31:08):
And so there's a couple ofdifferent arms under Seeds of
Giving, what we call Gives,Works, and Cares.
And the latest is Roots.
So Gives, to be clear, thereare lots of organizations in the
community that are doingwonderful things.
We want to solve challenges inthe community.
So this is our...
This is how we invest in thecommunity to organizations that
(31:29):
are doing things that we can'tdo, but because we support them,
we can enable them to have abigger impact.
So we're giving in thecommunities.
Works is when our employeesare, and many of you, maybe some
of you listening to the podcastor volunteering at
organizations in yourcommunities, we want to support
those organizations through you.
(31:49):
So as a company, we want toinvest where our people are
investing.
So when our employees aregiving of their time, we wanna
give of our financial resources.
So we're sponsoring $10 anhour.
So if you're volunteering at anorganization and you're not
reporting your hours, you'releaving money on the table that
you could be giving to yourorganization.
And then CARES, Hank mentionedthat as well, Often catastrophes
(32:15):
are events that happen,unforeseen events that people
don't have control over.
Our employees have a need.
A mother needs to feed, wayback when it was a mother that
needed to feed her children.
They came and said, can Iborrow money?
Well, today it may be a fire,it may be a death in the family,
it may be a sickness.
And through Danos Cares, we'reresponding to those needs.
So when you think about givesand works, those are outward
(32:36):
community.
Cares is a response to ourinward community.
We realize that we weremissing, we were responding to
our inward needs.
inside Danos community, we weremissing an opportunity to
invest in our community.
And that's where Roots came in.
You think about Roots, thinkabout a tree, having a strong
foundation.
How can we invest in building astrong foundation within our
(32:56):
organization?
And that's where Roots camefrom, where we want to, what
better way to invest in ourcommunity, our Danos community,
than building strong families?
So we're sponsoring camps,financial programs, piece of
something that we're doing,helping people to learn how to
manage their finances better,teaching them that.
summer trips, lots of differentthings, and it's still new.
(33:17):
So we're trying to find waysthat we can support people.
So the generosity that startedway back when, now we're trying
to be real intentional solvingproblems.
But everything that we've donereally started with the idea of
an employee that said, we can bebetter.
And now we've formed thesecommittees, and these committees
are made up by Danos employees.
And this isn't just Danosgiving the money.
(33:39):
These are employees that aredonating money to Seeds of
Giving and then in turn we'reable to steward it as a company
and have a bigger impact becauseas a community we can take the
resources and we can invest themtogether as a community instead
of one person or oneorganization and we're taking
the best ideas that come frominside the community.
So it's been really neat to seethe transition and the growth
(34:01):
that's happened.
Samantha (34:02):
So there's been a lot of growth for both the business
side of things, clearly, sincethe company started, you know,
78 years ago, but also on thephilanthropic generosity side of
things that has grownsignificantly as well.
Are there, have there been anychallenges or, you know, how
does a company balance thebusiness profit side of things
with also maintaining thatspirit of generosity and that
(34:26):
spirit of giving to both theiremployees and to the community?
Hank (34:31):
You want me to go first or you want to go?
Well, I was going to saythings, the evolution.
I was going to make a commentabout the evolution and think
about balancing that question.
And back to 78 years ago whenwe were a one boat, two man
(34:54):
operation and things evolved toa point maybe 50 years later, we
got a little moresophisticated, a little bigger,
and then from the secondgeneration to the third
generation, and Eric and Pauland Mark came in from working
(35:15):
and being educated, had been allover the world.
Mark had been in four or fivedifferent countries working, and
his brothers from the WestCoast to Houston, and one of the
early questions that we had toaddresses that they said, okay,
we've coming home to SouthLouisiana, why are we here?
(35:36):
They had already made thedecision to come, but they
wanted to address it formally.
Why are we here?
What's our purpose?
What's our values?
And not discounting the DNAthat had run, that was running
and continues to run through thecompany, it had to be personal
(35:56):
for them.
So, They formalized the purposeand said, besides formalizing a
purpose statement, which Markjust stated, honor God, develop
great people to solve challengesfor our customers and our
community.
They said, we're going to livethat out.
And they acknowledged, and weacknowledged, that sometimes
(36:21):
living out your purpose causesconflict and presents
challenges.
And we knew that serving thecommunity, serving customers,
being profitable, being generousis all embedded in our purpose
statement.
But if we did it correctly,that we would be able to live
(36:45):
out our purpose and prosper.
We are a for-profit company.
So we never shied away from thefact that we are a for-profit
company.
But how much we make, What wedo with that profit, how we
reinvest it in the company andin the community to build more
opportunities is real important.
(37:06):
And I believe that when you'regenerous in a broad spectrum and
invest properly in thecommunity and people development
and people who are maybe needythat can't ever pay back, it
pays great dividends and thecompany profits flourishes
(37:27):
because it attracts people whohave a similar set of values,
who don't mind working hard butare generous.
And that translates to greatcustomer satisfaction, which
translates to repeat customers,which translates to
opportunities for us to grow ourcompany and become profitable
(37:50):
and continue to be generous.
So it's just...
really a part of the wholepuzzle, the whole purpose.
And I think, yes, sometimesthose things seem to have come
into conflict, but when we canpull it off properly, everybody
(38:11):
benefits.
The customers, the community,the employees, the owners.
So I think that's animportant...
project that we have to alwaysstay focused on.
How do we live out our purpose?
Which includes being generous.
Samantha (38:31):
Thank you, Mark.
I know you had something youwanted to add to that.
I
Mark (38:33):
think Hank captured it well.
But what I would add to is aprocess, what he said.
Having a business,multi-generation family business
that's approaching 80 years isnot easy to do.
And we have been...
And there's no guarantee ofsuccess that it'll make it to 80
or 81 or 82 years.
We have a purpose that drivesus, right?
(38:55):
We're not going to forsake ourpurpose in order to maintain a
business.
But by driving towards ourpurpose, we talked about DNA, we
talked about values.
All of those things areexpressed through our business.
And when we're successful as abusiness, we're able, we're in a
position to have a biggercommunity impact.
So that drives us on.
(39:16):
When you're having a biggercommunity impact, it drives
people that want to be a part ofwhat you're doing.
So again, Hank talked about howit's complimentary.
It absolutely is.
Again, there's no guarantee tosuccess, but we will never
compromise our purpose in orderto maintain a successful
company.
They're complimentary.
We want to make sure thatpurpose first.
We're driving.
(39:36):
We're going to do the rightthings.
We're going to honor God.
We're going to develop people.
We're going to solve challengesin our customers and
communities.
And in the process of doingthat, we have great people that
are going to come up with greatideas, like we talked about a
minute ago with Seeds of Giving.
We will have people thatchallenge it.
We have had customers and wehave had employees that said,
why are you giving all thatmoney in the community?
(39:57):
When you think about when ourcustomers are cutting back and
saying, we need rate reductions.
So if we're talking aboutimpacting the community, there's
the perception, and people haveactually said it, that if we're
giving money in the community,our customers are gonna think
that we're charging them toomuch.
So they're gonna want ratereductions.
Absolutely something we shouldconsider.
But we're not gonna stop doingthe right thing.
(40:19):
We're not gonna stop investingin the community.
When we do the right thing, theright results will happen.
That may mean that we continueto grow.
That may mean that we have topivot.
But it's, again, verycomplimentary.
And it's a challenge that we'vehad to consider and we will
continue to consider.
And we want the right peoplewith the right ideas that are
(40:40):
continuing to challenge us to dogreat things.
Samantha (40:43):
Employees are such a big part of the business, but
the foundation, they've really,you mentioned employees' idea
started the foundation, and it'snow Seeds of Giving.
Can you tell them a little moreabout that?
Mark (40:55):
Yes, Samantha, I would say Seeds of Giving, we talked
about the word foundation, Hankused that, you just used that as
well, Seeds of Giving.
What is it?
We're planting seeds, we'regrowing, we're having an impact.
And this is a community effort.
So this is not just a DanosCorporation.
When the company is successful,we're able to have an impact.
Yes, when the company issuccessful, we're able to have a
(41:16):
bigger impact.
But it's been really, reallyneat and encouraging to see how
the employees have responded.
So this could be employees thathave been on the receiving end.
This could be employees thathave been involved in community
efforts.
But we've been fortunate.
It's not just about dollars,it's about lives impacted, but
when you think about it and whenyou measure dollars, more than
(41:37):
20% of what we give comes fromthe employees.
So that makes me often justtake a step back and think, wow,
it compels me from anaccountability and from a
stewardship standpoint that thisis not just a company writing a
check.
we're investing dollars, morethan 20% that is given by our
(41:58):
employees.
So think about the impact thatwe're having, lives touched,
areas impacted, partnering withgreat organizations and
responding to needs.
So it's very much a partnershipthat goes across all aspects of
the organization and all peopleinvolved.
Samantha (42:14):
Great, anything else to add?
Hank (42:17):
I heard somebody, a very successful, businessman recently
on a podcast say something thatI've been thinking about for
the last few days.
It just happened a few daysago, but he said, dreaming is
like a muscle.
And he said, the more we dream,the more we develop that
(42:39):
muscle.
And he was not only asuccessful businessman, but a
very successful businessman whowas very generous And he says,
we need to practice dreaming todo big things, better things,
awesome things.
(42:59):
And that includes not onlygrowing your business, but
developing people and beinggenerous to the community and
the areas where you wanna begenerous.
So we're gonna continue todream And we're going to include
not just the owners, but asmany people as we can in our
(43:23):
organization to dream with ushow we can be successful.
And we measure success not onlyin profit, but in generosity
and in developing people.
And we have to do that as ateam.
So we're dreaming big, and wewant to include plenty of people
in our dream.
Samantha (43:43):
Thank you.
Thank you for letting us be apart of that dream and to
continue dreaming with you.
Hank (43:49):
Thank you for giving us the opportunity to tell our
story, some parts of the story.
It's great.
Samantha (43:57):
I think everyone enjoyed hearing it.
It's great.
Great listening.
Thank
Hank (44:00):
you.
Thank you, Samantha.
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