A Letter from the Publisher
By Eric Harmon, President, Ohio Business Magazine
The Best Workplaces in Ohio feature is always a great opportunity to showcase some amazing companies here in Ohio. Business leaders carry a mission to create profit. However, many companies featured here have figured out how to accomplish this while carrying the torch of growth and giving all in their organizations a place at the table.
This issue should be hitting you just as school starts for the fall. The state is full of lots of fun activities during what is my favorite season of the year. However, there is no doubt that challenges will also continue to be presented because of COVID-19. While we all would prefer things subsided, those leading businesses—with memories of 2020 fresh—will once again be called to deal with the unexpected.
Here are some assumptions that I have pertaining to COVID-19:
1. Things won’t ever be the same.
2. The presence of COVID-19 and its variants will likely be here for the foreseeable future.
3. We within Ohio can make many of our decisions for what happens in our state. (Thomas Jefferson would be proud.)
And with these assumptions, I have some requests:
1. I ask all lawmakers that if changes to our business operations be necessary for the good of all, that the implementation be fair.
2. I ask that we all continue to press on and learn from our efforts and improve on those things that are working and, frankly, throw out the things that don’t.
This request for fairness is fueled from last year when small, locally owned, businesses were forced to shutter while many big-box publicly traded companies were allowed to remain open here in Ohio. Not only was this not fair, it offered undue competitive advantage then, and thereafter, to the companies that evidently have much stronger ability to shoulder the financial burden.
Our state demonstrated to the country in a myriad ways what it means to have strong leaders from government, business and the nonprofit community working together. And that worked well.
Here is to your continued success, well-being and a bountiful fall season.
