Entex Technologies

“Water is life.  It’s the briny broth of our origins, the pounding circulatory system of the world.  We stake or civilizations on the coasts and mighty rivers.  Our deepest dread is the threat of having too little – or too much.” 

 Barbara Kingsolver, author of The Poisonwood Bible

Jasper Lake, Alberta

Photograph by Sarah Hubbell, Copyright 2002

Lots of scientific studies have been done to find out what truly motivates people, and consequently companies.  Companies are really just people, after all.  This fascinating video from RSA points out some astonishing results.  The bottom line is that we as a company are not motivated by profit alone, we are also strongly motivated by purpose.  That purpose is environmental stewardship, creating innovative and cost-effective ways of treating wastewater and keeping our waterways clean.  Check it out, I think you’ll find it worth your time.

And I must give credit to my friend, Gwen Bell, for bringing this video to my attention.

From Entex CEO, Wayne Flournoy

Recently I was having dinner with one of our investors, a bright, inquisitive professional whose career included a stint as a CEO of a well known social networking company, and one as president of Asia for a leading beverage manufacturer. He now teaches Business Management in his retirement at one of our nation’s leading graduate business schools.

Over the course of several hours, our conversation touched on a number of different topics, some personal, some related to Entex. He offered a number of business insights for the company, and we discussed a broad range of topics ranging from finance to marketing to the value of clean water. When I got home, one part of the evening resonated beyond the norm. What struck me in retrospect was how the conversation drifted to values, and those values we teach our children. It was a very personal conversation, touching on a number of issues close to each of us.

Reflecting back on our dinner conversation reminds me of one of the reasons I value my career in wastewater. It’s not a particularly glamorous occupation, especially not back in the days when I first joined, before “sustainability”, “green” and other buzz words became socially popular. Years ago I had a similar dinner with a senior executive at another company in the industry (who’s long since retired). At the core of that conversation, and most of what I remember of that night, was his revelation that what kept him in the business all those years was the people. He related that while there were some notable exceptions, most people were in this business for the right reasons, and were “good” people that he liked being around.  I had never thought about it in quite that way until he laid it all out so clearly. I’ve never forgotten that dinner years ago simply for that singular personal revelation.

As I reflect back on these dinner conversations, the recurring themes are remarkable, and worth repeating. In the end, it all comes down to values. Nothing else really lasts. Hopefully, we cultivate those values within ourselves, and successfully pass them on to another generation. Another generation of children, another generation of professionals.

I have had many other, similar conversations, some with other Entex investors with whom I’ve become close, some with other wastewater professionals who have helped give depth to my own career as they shared their own values and dreams.

Take a few minutes this week, find a younger colleague, or perhaps your own children, and spend some time talking about what you do, and why you do it.  Pass it on.

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Here you will find up-to-date stories and opinions on all things related to our company, our people, and our passion: the global water environment. We would love to hear your thoughts on the various topics we will cover here, some personal and some impacting everyone.

Entex is thriving and growing as we embark on our 7th year of operations. We recently hired a new engineer, Phil Beecher, who we will tell you more about in an upcoming post. If you’ve been familiar with Entex for any length of time you probably know we recently added an entire new product line, our FlowTex Filtration Systems, headed up by Heidi Rupp. We continue to be actively involved in advancing cutting edge technologies in the wastewater treatment industry through research partnerships, publications and presentations at a wide variety of technical conferences.

Clean water and people are what we care about and we hope you’ll join our blog community to share with us what you care about too!